The Manteca and Ripon cross country teams opened the season with solid efforts Friday at the Jaguar Invitational hosted by Kimball High of Tracy.

Manteca’s boys and girls teams each took second, while both Ripon squads placed third at the 5-kilometer course on Eagal Lakes. Sheldon captured both titles. Weston Ranch’s girls finished fifth, while its boys ended up ninth.

Freshman Lejla Pepic was the area’s top placer, finishing third overall in 21 minutes, 48.8 seconds in the girls race for Manteca. She was followed by Emma Holbrook (seventh, 22:47.3), Harleen Pabla (10th, 23:17.2), Ivy Benson (15th, 23:57.8) and Ariana Avina (16th, 24:08.1).

Sophomore Ellie Waters (eighth, 22:52) paced Ripon, which also had scoring contributions from Ana Hermosillo (14th, 23:53.8), Jessica Carmona (17th, 24:10.5), Analisa Rangel (25th, 25:21.0) and Harmony Sedillo (36th, 26:32.1).

Weston Ranch’s Fattima Momini placed sixth in 22:41.6. She was joined by Angel Flores (26th, 25:22.9), Zehra Momini (31st, 26:09.5), Courtney Fritchen (35th, 26:29.5) and Lucero Ambriz (45th, 27:56.2).

Manteca’s Brandon Galan (18:25.6) and Marcus Avila (18:30.0) were the area leaders for the boys, finishing fourth and fifth. Luis Ayala (11th, 18:53.1), Hector Patron (12th, 19:07.2) and Brian Balcita (14th, 19:22.2) made up the rest of the Buffaloes’ score.

Alex Norling (eighth, 18:41.7) led the way for Ripon. Antonio Pelaez (13th, 19:17.4), Brent White (21st, 19:55.4), Anthony Garcia (22nd, 19:57.9) and Kyle Bailey (28th, 20:24.3) aided the third-place finish.

Weston Ranch standout Brandon Curtright took ninth in 18:43.5.



Volleyball

Bear Creek 3, W. Ranch 0

The Cougars dropped three competitive games, 22-25, 19-25, 24-26. Additional information was not submitted.

The sophomore squad won 25-12, 26-24. Cassandra Alcazar and Elysia Hernandez each had four kills. Lily Aguilar racked up four service aces, and Sabrina Rangel added six assists and 12 digs.