Pristine Mei finished second in last week's 22-33 GBL title clinching win over Malden.

By Mike Rubin

Pristine Mei finished second in last week’s 22-33 GBL title clinching win over Malden.

For the second consecutive season, the Somerville High School girls cross country team continues to light area courses on fire. Led by several solid efforts, the Highlanders emerged with a 22-33 win last week over Malden at Pine Banks Park.

With the win, the Highlanders won the Greater Boston league title and finished the dual meet season at 4-0 before the Division 1 Eastern Championships in two weeks at Franklin Park.

For the Highlanders, clinching the league title was a special accomplishment, after losing several key runners to other sports at the start of the season.

“The girls are running really well,” said coach Charlie Tesch. “They started off a bit slow, but they were able to turn things up a bit towards the end of the race.”

Leading the way was Iaritza Menjivar, who captured the top spot with a time of 21:50 while Pristine Mei finished second en route to a time of 21:51. Other top performances for the Highlanders included Rita Kelliher, who placed third with a time of 22:23 while Maggie Langwig placed fifth en route to a time of 22:29 followed Melanie Garro, (10th place, 23:21).

“It was a great win, and I’m very happy with the way everyone ran,” said Tesch. “Everybody really stepped it up.”

On the boys’ side, the Highlanders squandered an opportunity to clinch the GBL title before falling to Malden 24-34. With the loss, the Highlanders fell to 3-1 overall. Leading the way was Ed Chen, who cruised to a winning time of 17:10 while Mike Conte placed fourth (17:16). Also contributing was Thomas Sullivan, who finished sixth with a time of 17:34 followed by Danny Huang with a ninth place result (18:17) along with Andryc Evich (12th, 18:15).