Bolstered by top performances in several flights, the Bellevue boys cross country team captured the Bellevue Invitational team title at Lake Sammamish State Park on Saturday.

Bellevue scored 51 points to top second place Richland (91) by a big margin. Bellevue’s John Fowler helped the Wolverines by capturing first place in the varsity 3-4 race, while Addison Woolsey took first for Bellevue in the varsity 5-6 race with a time of 17:17.

“It didn’t necessarily surprise me that they ran as strong as they did because they have been preparing since last season,” said Bellevue coach John Hill. “But it never gets old to see that kind of result.”

Bellevue’s Nick Maclean finished in second in the varsity 5-6 race, just behind running mate Woolsey.

“Nick ran the best race that he’s ever run,” Hill said. “He had a career effort.”

Interlake’s Max Crowell finished fifth overall in the varsity 1-2 race in 16:40. The Saints finished in fifth with 123 points. Newport took 11th with 245 points, while Sammamish finished 24th (357) and Bellevue Christian finished 30th with 405 points.

The Interlake girls team finished fourth at the invite with 144 points, just in front of Newport, who scored 153 points. The Bellevue girls finished seventh with 159 points.

“I’ve got a 1,001 nice things I could say about those kids,” Hill said. “They’ve learned how to harness their strength.”

Bellevue Christian took 18th with 289 points, while Sammamish finished 28th with 369 points.

Hill said, as an event organizer, he felt blessed by the fine weather Saturday. The course, he said, was a bit difficult because of some of the conditions – the humidity and the sand on the beach – but the meet went off as well as it could.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “There’s a lot of energy that goes into that meet and once the first gun goes off, and the first races start, it’s really cool.”