MODESTO – Over 1,200 runners gathered at Legion-Tuoumne Regional Park in Modesto Saturday for the Sierra Cross Country Invitational. The host Timberwolves put on a show, winning both the small and large school divisions in both boys and girls action.

Sierra also dominated the lower level competitions, as the Timberwolves frosh-soph boys finished first overall in the small school division, and the frosh-soph girls took second overall.

Grace Davis’ Roberto Rosas won the boys 5-kilometer varsity race with a 16-minute, 13 second finish, and Sonora’s Lizzy Grolle took home the girls crown in 19:59.

Forty-four schools competed in the largest Sierra Invitational in history.

“Obviously, it was a pretty big day for us,” Sierra head coach Anthony Chapman said. “We expected to compete in the small school division, but the fact that both the boys and girls finished first overall was not expected.”

Chapman was also happy that his squad got their first look at Valley Oak League competition, as Oakdale, Sonora, East Union and Manteca all represented in Modesto.

Sierra’s John Bowers finished tied for fourth out of 262 runners in the varsity boys run, turning in a time of 16:49 (5:25 per mile).

Ricky Morris was moved up to varsity for the meet, and impressed as well, finishing 16th in 17:19.

East Union’s Eduardo Ordaz took 22nd (17:35), the T’Wolves’ Kyle Furtado finished 31st overall (18:03), and teammate Christian Virrueta took 36th (18:18).

On the girls’ side, Sierra’s Amber Parker finished 22nd (22:21), Jenny Goulart took 24th (22:26), Katelyn Carbiener finished a second behind Goulart for 25th, Jessica Montiel finished 30th (22:43), and Francis Scherry was 35th at 23:00.

East Union’s Alejandra Alvarez was 28th at 22:32, and Ripon’s Jessica Bettencourt finished 18th at 22:09.

Sierra’s varsity squads will head to Stanford Sept. 26, while the frosh-soph teams will head to Frogtown.