Emily McMahon had a little more fun at Saturday’s Lava Bear Classic cross country meet than she did at the same race last year.

The junior from Mountain View High School pulled away from her closest competition in the last 100 meters to break the course record and add a second Lava Bear Classic title to the family trophy case.

McMahon bettered her time from last year’s Classic, in which she ran despite a bout with mononucleosis, by more than a minute and 40 seconds. The win came seven years after her sister Heather, a standout at Bend High and later at the University of Oregon, won the Classic.

The Cougs’ Christine Eckstein finished sixth to help Mountain View take second place as a team at what is billed each year as one of the most competitive prep cross country meets in the Northwest.

The top teams from the states of Oregon and Washington duked it out over the 5,000-meter course on the rolling grass hills of Widgi Creek Golf Course southwest of Bend.

No. 1-ranked Jesuit of Beaverton won the girls title with a score of 81 points.

The second-ranked Cougars tallied 95 points and were followed by Snohomish of Spokane, Wash., which scored 104.

Bend was ninth (265) and Redmond was 13th (327).

The boys race proved that cross country is very much a team sport.

Despite strong individual efforts for Klamath Union, the Pelicans finished third overall as the top team from Oregon.

Mead of Spokane ranked second in the nation by Harrier magazine won the meet with a score of 64, and Ferris (Wash.) was second with 84 points, thanks to the teams’ amazing depth.

Klamath Union’s Lauren Jespersen won the boys race in a course-record time of 15 minutes, 23.2 seconds. Jespersen teammate Jacob Gomez was third (15:36.7), and after scoring each team’s top four runners, the Pelicans held a 10-point lead over Mead.

Unfortunately for Klamath Union, the top five runners are scored, and that added another 76 points to their total.

The Bend High boys were eighth (201 points) overall and fifth out of the teams from Oregon.

Scott Boyd was 21st in a time of 16:30.5 to pace the Lava Bears.

Mountain View was 11th (274). The Cougars were led by Ryan Martinez, who clocked in at 16:37.7 to finish 25th.

The Redmond boys were 14th with a score of 354.

McMahon’s winning time of 18:35.1 in the girls race bettered the course record by 10 seconds.

The old course record was set last year, the first time the Classic was run at Widgi Creek, by Liz Lindgren of Klamath Union. Lindgren went on to win the state individual championship last November.

”I knew there was a lot of good girls here, so I wanted to stay up front with them,” said McMahon, who ran in a pack of three for most of the race.

Mead’s Jamie Geissler led the race by about 20 meters with 800 meters to run when McMahon made her move.

After passing Geissler, she powered her way to the finish line in front of a thunderous home crowd.

”I had the benefit of running this course two times before and I knew where I was going,” said McMahon, whose season best was 19:02 heading into the Classic.

Bend’s Erica Johnson was ninth in a time of 19:46.5 and Redmond’s Bonnie Pelham was 39th in 20:38.5 to pace their respective squads.

Jespersen, second at last year’s Classic, is a favorite to win state and has seen some tough competition this season.

”Competitively, this (the Classic) is real close to Stanford,” said Jespersen, referring to the prestigious Stanford Invitational held earlier this season. ”The only difference is there is not as many teams.”

”It’s a nice course,” said Jespersen of the Widgi Creek layout. ”I like running on the grass.”

Jespersen outsprinted Alec Wall (15:24.8) of Grant to hold him off by just over one second for first place.