Ridge twins sparkle at Stanford event

In one of the premiere regional high school cross country meets of the year Saturday, Mountain Ridge seniors Nadya and Nastia Bishton showed that they are not only two of the top runners in the state of Arizona, but two of the elite prep runners in this part of the country.

At Saturday’s Stanford Invitational, a 5K-event bringing together teams from across the western United States, Nadya, last year’s 5A Div-I state champion in Arizona, raced to victory in a time of 17:29. Nastia, who took third at last year’s 5A Div-I state meet, also ran strong, claiming second place just two seconds off the pace set by her twin sister.

Competing in the girls 5K-seeded race, the Bishton sisters led Mountain Ridge to a seventh-place finish in the 22-team division.

Rounding out the top five for Mountain Ridge were senior Katelin Radosevich (19:45), who took 63rd, freshman Nathalie Nguyen (20:07), who was 74th and senior Marina Trent (20:36) who was 92nd in the 154-person field.

Portland Jesuit, which had all five of its runners finish in the top 35 won the event with a score of 108. Mountain Ridge’s total was 232.