Xavier's Sarah Fakler did what she did a year ago. Cibola's Bernie Montoya achieved what he fell short of a year ago.

Two of the state's top cross country runners showed their expertise last Friday night in winning their respective sweepstakes races at the 5th annual Desert Twilight Cross Country Festival at Toka Sticks Golf Course in Mesa.

Fakler a junior, won the top girls race of the night (Milesplit Sweepstakes) for the second year in a row. Fakler outdistanced the runner-up from last year, Chinle's Rolanda Jumbo, by 31 seconds. Fakler's winning time was 17 minutes, 30 seconds. Fakler also finished second in the race her freshman year, beaten out by teammate and fellow Xavier standout, Jessica Tonn in 2009. Fakler was the Division I champ last year and Jumbo the Division III champ.

Xavier also won the team title with a dominating performance with so many good teams on hand from all classifications and some from out of state. The Gators finished with 25 points. Scoring teammates following Fakler to the finish were  Breanna Perrone (4th), Laura Orlie (5th), Lauren Kinzle (7th) and Samantha Mattice (8th). Xavier's other two runners were 10th and 21st. The other runner finishing in the top five was Highland's Tory Haberman (3rd). 

Mesa Mountain View placed second in the girls sweekstakes team standings with 117, followed by Los Alamos, N.M. (148), Desert Vista and Mountain Brook, Ala.

Montoya, the top returning boys finisher from last year's DT race (finishing eighth), got a tough battle from Centennial High School  (Nev).  Nick Hartle, Montoya beat Hartle by eight seconds, outlasting him with a time of 15:02. Montoya is the defending Division I state champion. Montoya, a junior, will head to the Divison I state meet in November as the favorite to repeat.

Rounding out the top five boys finishers in the Sole Sports Sweepstakes were Sabino's Tyler Stamp (3rd), Rincon's Ryan Silva (4th) and Saguaro's Jake Wynn (5th).

Taking home the boys sweepstakes team crown was Mountain Brook High from Alabama in a much closer battle for the top spot. Mountain Brook finished with 174 points, followed by runner-up Mesa Mountain View (211), Highland (224), Los Alamos, N.M. (252) and Brophy (260).