EAGLE — With 10 feet to go, Andres Jaramillo raised his hands and smiled.

The Vallivue High junior had good reason to smile as he crossed the finish line in 16 minutes, 21.62 seconds to win the District III-5A cross country championship Friday at Eagle Island State Park.

"It feels really great," Jaramillo said, "I've been working for this the whole week, I've been practicing. I've just been hoping for this."

Jaramillo grabbed an early lead over Centennial's Kramer Quist in the 5-kilometer championship, and got support from teammates John Robinson and Morgan Choate, who both ran in the top five all day.

"It made it great, they're my teammates, they're running with me, it was great," Jaramillo said. "I'm with them every day, it makes me feel better."

Evidently the Falcon runner felt really good, as he fended off Quist, and when Capital's Cody Larson attacked with a mile left in the race, Jaramillo fended off another challenge.

"He was going fast, he did good," Jaramillo said of Larson.

It was just not good enough to beat the Falcon junior, who, spurred on by the cheering crowd, won by 5 seconds over Robinson. Robinson used a late kick to finish second in 16:26.47.

Choate took fourth in 16:33.06. Larson fell to sixth (16:36.18).

"I haven't run for a while," Robinson said, surprised by his finish at the district meet as it was his first back from a pulled hamstring. "I thought top 10 maybe. The race just felt good, you know, the crowd's cheering for us. It helps a lot."

Vallivue's 1-2-4 finish landed the Falcons in fourth as a team, earning then a berth in the 5A state meet Oct. 31 at Circling Raven Golf Club in Worley.

It's a chance for Jaramillo and Robinson to duel for an even bigger title.

"We go back and forth, I beat him, he beats me," Robinson said, "but (Friday) he had the upper hand. He beat me."

In the girls race, Eagle's Liz Brandon pulled away with a mile to run, easily winning the district title in 18:32.18 over Boise's Kate Jamboretz (18:47.68), who ran stride for stride with Brandon for two-thirds of the meet.

"She pushed me and made it so I could actually push myself to the limit and get the kick in the end," Brandon said.

Mountain View's Jordan Mathes was third, followed by Boise's Michelle Hickerson, Meridian's Sora Klopfenstein. Vallivue freshman Cheryn Trapp finished sixth.

"I'm kinda pleased," said Trapp, who ran third most of the day before fading. "I thought I probably made my move too early.

"I kinda wanted to go out strong and then go in easy and nice, but it kinda didn't work out that well."

Still, the freshman will be heading to state, along with the Vallivue girls team, which finished fifth.

"I'm real excited for that, it should be fun," Trapp said.

In the team races, the Mountain View girls easily won with their first five girls — the first five runners for each team score — finishing in the top 12.

The Boise boys edged Eagle 86-91 for the district title.

Oscar Fennell finished 28th in 17:13.36 to lead the Caldwell boys, who were 11th.

Kayla Eriksen was 57th (22:24.40) to lead the Cougar girls to an 11th-place finish.