ROYAL CITY - The Royal High cross country team opened the season with the top 1A finish at the Moses Lake Invitational at Blue Heron Park.

The course consisted of three loops on mostly grass for a total of 3.1 miles. Royal was led to fourth place overall and first among 1A schools by senior Marcos Quiroz.

Quiroz finished seventh overall with a time of 17:20. Riley Lefler (18:04 15th) was second for the Knights, Nathan Perdue (19:00, 28th) was third, Salvador Horta (19:30, 33rd) was fourth, and Victor Garcia (19:30, 34th) rounded out the scorers for the Knights.

Area schools that Royal outran were Quincy, Moses Lake and Othello.

Royal's girls ran without a full varsity lineup, but the girls who ran did well. Freshman Caitlin Diaz finished in 14th place overall with a time of 23:20. Meaghan Mianecki finished in 24th (24:13) and Carina Moreno was 36th (26:37).

"The team really had a solid week of training, and their improvement was evident at Moses Lake," coach Ben Orth said. "With temperatures reaching 95 degrees, the runners had to battle both the competition and the heat."