AVERY THIRD AT GVC CHAMPIONSHIPS

WEED, Calif. – Shasta College freshman Avery Grady finished in third place in the Golden Valley Conference cross-country championships Friday at College of the Siskiyous.

The Knights had four competitors but needed five to compete as a team. Grady paced Shasta, running his 4-mile race in 22 minutes, 57 seconds for an average mile of 5:44. He finished 28 seconds behind winner Blake Chitwood (22:29) of Siskiyous and two seconds behind second-place finisher Michael Martin (22:55) of Butte.

Shasta freshman Geoffrey Chavez was 11th in 25:09 (6:17 average mile), freshman Jonathan Harrison was 22nd in 32:04 (8:01 average mile) and freshman Mike Cubillos was 24th in 39:35 (average mile of 9:53).

Butte won the overall team competition with 22 points, thanks to three finishers in the top five and six in the top nine overall. Siskiyous was second with 41 points and Redwoods was third with 68 points.

Shasta did not have any competitors in the women's field, which was won by Hope Dodgen of Siskiyous. Dodgen ran the 5K course in 20:45 for an average mile of 6:43. Redwoods' Maria Overton was second in 21:57 (7:03 average mile) and Butte's Stefanie Valdez was third in 22:34 (average mile of 7:15).

Butte won the team competition with 24 points and the only other school to field a full team was Redwoods, which finished with 31 points.

Shasta's Grady will head to the NorCal Regional Championships on Friday.