At least one cross country coach found out Saturday that his runners are more resilient than he guessed.

Less than a week after suffering jet lag and heat fatigue on a fun and strenuous team trip to a meet in Hawaii, the Falcon boys and girls made a graceful recovery on their home course in last weekend’s South Whidbey Invitational.

Having already race tested their legs again on Washington and Canadian ground two days earlier in Blaine, the South Whidbey runners were apparently ready for Saturday’s invitational. For the girls, top-10 finishes from senior Callie Supsinskas and sophomore Mary Bakeman, combined with solid performances by Nancy Godsey, Katy Gordon and Becky Gabelein, made this year’s edition of the Invitational better than 2002’s. On the boys side, the fourth place earned at the meet in 2002 was a bit out of reach, but their ninth-place team finish Saturday was still hard won.

Paced by Supsinskas’ 20-minute, 17-second sixth-place finish, the Falcon girls placed third in the team competition behind Jackson and Port Angeles — one place higher than in 2002.

Behind Supsinskas and the eighth-place Bakeman, the team’s other three scoring runners made the difference. Running a controlled race, junior Godsey made a number of key passes late in her race to take 23rd overall. Behind her, freshman Gordon was using her own strategy to hang on to a top-40 placing.

“Follow Nancy,” Gordon said, describing how she ran her 22:01 race.

Gabelein was the final South Whidbey scorer in 56th place, while sophomore Britta Madison was 80th in the 115-athlete race.

In the boys race, senior James Sundquist again represented South Whidbey in the lead pack. His 12th-place, 16:47 finish behind race winner Jeff Helmer of Jackson was the quickest run by a Falcon all season. Behind him, sophomore JD Peters and junior Holton Schmidt were both sub-18-minute runners on the 3.07-mile course, and earned top-40 placings in the 148-boy race.

Continuing his rise in the team’s varsity ranks, sophomore Chris dePender was fourth in for South Whidbey, taking 64th place. Not far behind, senior Phil Schorr ran down his first scoring varsity placing in four years with a solid, 18:35 run. Also racing for the team were freshman Jason Fitz and senior Jeff Strong.

Top junior varsity runners for South Whidbey were freshman Kurt Warwick with a 19:10 finish, and sophomore Melissa Mydynski, who ran her first sub-23-minute race on her way to an eighth place finisher.

“It was weird,” said Mydynski, who ran at the front of the South Whidbey pack for the first time in the race. “I was used to following everybody.”

Saturday’s runs followed a strong showing by the Falcons Thursday in a North Cascades Conference meet at Peace Arch Park near Blaine. Running a 3.1-mile course that crossed the U.S.-Canada border several times, the Falcon boys beat teams from Mount Baker, Nooksack Valley, Blaine and Sultan, while the girls placed second as a team, 10 points down to Mount Baker.

Falcon coach Doug Fulton said the girls race sets up a showdown at the NCC championship next month.

“We see ourselves closing the gap,” he said.

Placing for the boys at the meet were Sundquist, Peters dePender, Fitz and Strong, who had his best race of the week with a fourth-place, 17:53 finish. For the girls, Supsinskas, Bakeman, Godsey, Gordon and Madison made up the top five.