LANGLEY — The Arlington boys cross country team won the South Whidbey Invitational, taking the first-place finish in the Division II competition.

Junior James Clark had the winning time of 16:53.35 in the earlier of two varsity races. The next six Arlington runners placed about a minute apart, with Devin Swanson, Andrew Bosket and Aaron Newson all finishing within the top 25 places of the race.

“The cool thing about it is we have a pretty big team,” said Arlington coach Mike Shierk. “The younger kids saw that and were like, ‘Ooh.’”

Bosket’s time was about a minute’s improvement on his best mark from the year before, and Clark improved about 45 seconds from his personal best at the late season North County Invite in 2008.

The Arlington girls stepped up against tougher competition, opting into the more challenging Division I race and placing sixth overall. The only district rival team to place higher was Stanwood, who is hovering around No. 3 in state coaches polls. Sophomore Teresa Wadey was the first to cross the finish line for the Eagles, placing 26th overall. Teammates Katie Anderson, Kristin Wreggelsworth and Safa Pinkens all finished in a cluster between times of 20:41 and 20:56 and junior Bryna Prause was the fifth and final Arlington girl to earn team points, finishing 60th in a time of 21:10.

“On the girls side, they did exactly what they’re supposed to do — finish within a minute and a half and under 21 minutes. The times were impressive for this time of the year,” Shierk said.