CHAPEL HILL - Running on a glorious, sunny autumn morning at Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill and Carrboro harriers once again demonstrated the balance of local cross-country teams as they competed in "The OC" -- the Orange County Invitational championship meet.

Carrboro saw five female runners finish in the top 10 places of their varsity 5K to win with 31 points. Chapel Hill, led by medalist Tristan Van Ord, was second with 42 points, followed by Orange (70) and East Chapel Hill (81).

Chapel Hill won the varsity boys' championship with 30 points, placing six runners among the top 10. East Chapel Hill (55) was second, with Orange (73) and Carrboro (75) in a close battle for third.

"We all look forward to this meet; these are our friends," Carrboro's Alex Phillips said. "It's like states. This is our chance to show what we can do against the bigger schools."

Unlike the NCHAA state championships, The OC lets all the classifications compete together.

"These are the teams to beat at every level," said Orange's Indy Reid-Shaw. "They make us push ourselves. We might be behind them, but they make us want to do better."

Reid-Shaw finished third with a time of 19:17 in the girls' varsity 5K, behind Van Ord (18:59) and runnerup Grace Morken (19:10) of Carrboro. Pegah Khosravi-Kamrani, (19:19) of East Chapel Hill was fourth, and Carrboro's Maysa Araba (19:22) was fifth.

Mitch McLeod of host Chapel Hill won the varsity boys' 5K in 15:53, pulling away relatively early from runnerup Sam Miner of East Chapel Hill (16:03).

"I broke away in the woods during the second loop, just past two miles. That was the plan," said McLeod, who, unlike his breakneck start in the previous meet at McAlpine Park, laid back early on his home course. " I wasn't trying to kill it today. ... I just wanted to get in a good race."

Miner's teammate Matt Fordham, (16:14) took third, while Chapel Hill's Chris Reeder (16:27) was fourth and East's Ryan Brady (16:36) was fifth.

Chapel Hill won both the junior varsity girls' and boys' 5Ks, with Carrboro second in both events. The CHHS JV boys swept the first six places, with Adam Sutter, (17:16), Marc Ordronneau (17:29), Peter Williams (17:36), Zach Visco (17:38), Jeffery Williams (17:52) and Seth Cameron (18:04) finishing in order.

Carrboro (54) took second in the girls' JV race, with East Chapel Hill (63) third. Carrboro's JV boys had 56 points for second, followed by East Chapel Hill (75) and Orange (112).