CHICO, CA -- Chico High's Nahkia Clements and Sophie Sims crossed the finish line almost simultaneously. It was nothing new for the two Panthers as the pair of teammates usually run together during practice. "We run all the workouts together. We're always together and so close. We do basketball together. We're with each other all the time. I love racing with her," Clements said. "Towards the very end. We were actually talking to each other saying, 'Let's go.'" Clements, a senior, won the 5,000-meter race in 20 minutes, 9.27 seconds, during an Eastern Athletic League Center meet Wednesday afternoon at Hooker Oak Park. Sims followed, finishing a close second in 20:10.28.
The Chico High girls and boys teams both took first place out of six teams. The Pleasant Valley boys finished third while the girls placed fifth. Kelsey Roach led the Vikings with a 20th-place finish in 23:07.73.
Three out of the top five finishers in the girls' race were from Chico as Una Griffith finished fourth. Carsen Quintero, Iresh Molina and Della Molina finished sixth, seventh and eighth for the Panthers.
"Everybody on our team just works so hard," Sims said. "Everyone tried super hard today and everyone worked together."
Clements, Sims and Rize Oliveira from Foothill were all running as a cluster earlier in the race. But Sims and Clements both separated from Oliveira near the two-mile mark.
"I kept telling myself to relax the entire time," Clements said.
At the very end, Clements used her kick to pull away from Sims and pull off the victory.
"It's like that every day in workouts. We've talked about holding hands even when we finish a race," Sims said.
The boys' varsity race saw Chico's Mario Giannini taking the runner-up position behind Enterprise senior Nick Torres. Giannini clocked in at 16:21.3, a scant second behind the winner.
The sophomore spent the entire race chasing Torres but couldn't quite overtake the senior Hornet, having to settle for second place.
"I definitely thought I could improve on a lot of aspects," Giannini said after running an additional two miles as a cool-down. "I wasn't happy about the finish but I'm very happy I ran the time that I did."
Giannini could be excused for coming up a little short in the race's closing sprint as he is coming off of an impressive mid season 5K mark of 15:48.3 run the previous Saturday at the Capital Cross Challenge in Sacramento. But, Giannini said he could have improved the first-mile leg of the race on Wednesday.
"I'm definitely going to focus more on the race and run the first mile a little better," Giannini said. "I'm going to keep my head up and try to finish better at the next one."
In the boys race, Chico again had three of the top five finishers. Alan Nava took fourth in 16:58.75 and teammate Hunter Dougherty finished in 17:01.70.
The Vikings were led by sophomore Renton McGregor, who took eighth in 17:14.
Chico will next compete in the West Valley Invitational Friday in Cottonwood while Pleasant Valley competes in the Southern Oregon Invitational on Oct. 12.
