The South Whidbey boys cross country team notified its league foes that it will be tough to beat with a strong showing at the North Sound Conference Preview Meet hosted by Granite Falls Wednesday, Sept. 5, at Arlington’s River Meadows Park.

While the Falcons won the boys meet, the South Whidbey girls also put in a solid showing, finishing second over the 3,000-meter course.

The boys placed five in the top 12 to score 39 points, 20 better than runner up King’s. Cedar Park Christian took third with 61 points, followed by Granite Falls (76), Coupeville (135) and Sultan (no team score).

King’s led the girls with 22 points, while South Whidbey posted 42 and Granite Falls 55. The three other schools did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score.

Michael Cepowski led the Falcon boys by placing fourth in 10:41.84. Others scoring for South Whidbey were Thomas Simms (sixth, 11:15.27), Cooper Ullmann (ninth, 11:24.07), Reilly McVay (11th, 11:35.28) and Sam Baesler (12th, 1:38.03).

Isaac Cortes of Granite Falls won the boys race out of 59 runners in 10:37.14.

South Whidbey’s Kaia Swegler Richmond placed second (12:04.19) to King’s Naomi Smith (11:34.39) in the girls race, which included 23 runners.

Also scoring for the Falcons were Flannery Friedman (10th, 14:41.59), Grace Huffman (11th, 14:52.88), Natalie Rodriguez (15th, 15:49.91) and Laila Gmerek (20th, 16:58.75).

The Falcons will run in the Sehome Invitational at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at Bellingham’s Civic Field.