Ryan Torres’ best competition came from his teammates in Thursday’s Trans-Valley League Cross Country Finals at Tuolumne River Regional Park in Modesto.

And that’s a good thing for Ripon High’s varsity boys squad.

The Indians occupied the top three spots led by Torres’ time of 16 minutes, 47 seconds, and they nabbed their second-straight conference title by outscoring second-place Hughson, 25-49.

Alec Steinberg followed Torres through the finish line in 16:54, and Jordan Gibson checked in just 3 seconds later.

Torres also won the two TVL cluster meets, but Steinberg and Gibson are inching closer to Ripon’s leader. That bodes well for a team looking to defend its Division-IV title in the Sac-Joaquin Section Meet on Nov. 11.

“All three of these guys have been pulling and pushing and encouraging each other all season, and now the hard work is paying off,” Ripon coach Paul Calkins said.

Also scoring for Ripon were Nick Ratto (17:54) and Christian Plata (18:05). Riverbank finished third with 61 points, and Escalon fourth with 99.

Ripon’s girls (50) were the runners-up behind Riverbank (37). Escalon (65) and Hughson (66) took third and fourth.

The Lady Indians were paced by Rebekah Brown, who Calkins said set a personal record of 20:03 by nearly a minute on the course. Ana Hermosillo (21:03), Alexis Keylon (21:06), Jessica Carmona (22:05) and Monica Izaguirre (22:19) rounded out the team’s score.

“All of our guys and girls had PRs today, which is the way it’s supposed to be,” Calkins said. “I’ve really been impressed with how hard they’ve been working the last three weeks. Both teams have their eyes focused on the state meet.”

First is the SJS Subsection Meet Nov. 5 at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angels Camp.