The Paly boys’ cross-country team placed fourth out of 15 teams at Saturday’s Artichoke Invitational at Half Moon Bay High School.

The team’s top three scorers, Samuel Mignot (‘14), Ben Hawthorne (‘13) and Nate Cook (‘15) finished within four seconds of each other, garnering them the 17th, 18th and 19th places, respectively. Mignot finished the 2.33 mile course in 13:15, Hawthorne in 13:16 and Cook in 13:19. Paly’s final two scorers were Ben May (‘13) in 26th place and Justin Zhang (‘13) in 42nd.

In the varsity B race, Will Kershner (‘13) ran the course with a time of 13:19, tying Cook’s time in the varsity race.

Although the meet lacked competition from the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL), May was pleased with how the team performed.

“It’s pretty hard to say how well we did in terms of SCVAL and CCS [Central Coast Section], mostly because there was the Clovis Invitational the same day, but I think we all did well and we had some surprising times from the team,” May said.

The team will have a chance to see how it stacks up against league opponents at the SCVAL Preview Meet at the Crystal Springs cross-country course this Tuesday, Oct. 10. The meet was rescheduled from last Tuesday due to heat concerns.