The Tri-Valley League Cross Country Championships at Oak Canyon Park on Thursday were not so much races as they were coronations.

Oak Park High coach Kevin Smith's girls' squad captured its eighth consecutive league crown while his boys' team took home its sixth title in a row.

"Our goal is to improve percent," said Smith. "Today, we wanted to work on running downhills a little better today, and everybody got out and went after it.

"The cohesion among this group of kids is just fantastic," Smith said. "The kids will give up races just to help a teammate improve, and the seniors have really relished accepting that challenge."

Courtney Lightfoot — who took the girls' field through the first mile in 5 minutes, 26 seconds — and Melissa Skiba led the Lady Eagles to a convincing 22-point victory over runner-up Oaks Christian, crossing 1-2 in 18:39 and 18:40, respectively.

"We kind of knew we'd win," said Skiba, "but there's a lot of good runners in this league, so we had to be ready."

The Lions' Roseanne Fleming, one of the pre-race favorites, moved into contention, cutting Lightfoot's lead in half — to eight seconds — by the halfway mark but faded on the hillier back half of the course and finished fifth in 19:31, nearly a minute behind the winner.

Skiba, meanwhile, made-up ground on her teammate throughout, pulling to her shoulder with 200 meters left, only to watch Lightfoot sprint away in the final 50.

Jenessa Rose (third in 19:01) led all St. Bonaventure runners and qualified for CIF as an individual — as did defending league finals champion Catherine Hasbrouck of Nordhoff who struggled throughout and barely held on to sixth (19:42).

Sarah Pearson took fourth in 19:09 and helped La Reina take third, earning the last team invite to CIF.

Oak Park's boys' team was even more impressive, crushing the competition by capturing the first four spots and six of the first eight.

Oak Park sophomore James Goldstein won the boys' race in a personal best 15:53, taking the field through a lightning fast 4:39 opening mile before opening-up a 150-meter lead in the second mile and cruising home in 15:53.

"I wanted to go out fast so I could break 16, but I didn't think I was going out that fast," said Goldstein, who used a similar tactic last week at Lake Casitas to capture the Ventura County Championships title.

Behind Goldstien, teammates Garrison Gourdeau (second in 16:17) and Cooper Claus (third in 16:18) worked together throughout to wear-down Oaks Christian's Charlie Petrie (16:35), who chased Goldstein early before finishing fifth.

Goldstein's efforts, however, along with those of teammates Hunter Hay (ninth, 16:56) and Ethan Long (10th, 17:00), helped the Lions edge Nordhoff — which was led by sixth-place finisher Joe Finley (16:44) — for second place in the team competition, 59-62.

The top teams head to CIF Prelims next weekend, with Oak Park, one of Division III's top-ranked teams, eyeing a date three weeks down the road at the state meet.