LAKESIDE — Sydney Snook and Trevor Berrian used the same strategy to post wins by the same margin Tuesday in the Tugman Invitational cross country meet.

Both Snook and Berrian seized the lead in the opening moments and stayed in front throughout the 5,000-meter races.

Snook, a sophomore from Gold Beach, crossed the finish line in 19 minutes and 5 seconds, just over half a minute in front of Sutherlin’s Chelsea Spencer, who was second in 19:36.

“I wanted to try to lead, because I’m most comfortable that way,” said Snook, who was 35 seconds faster than her best on the Tugman course last year. “I ran the race the way I wanted.”

Berrian, meanwhile was similarly dominant in the boys race, blazing through the first mile in about 4 minutes and 40 seconds and holding on for a 31-second victory over Thurston’s Michael Bennett.

“It was a good race,” said Berrian, who admitted his goal was to run the first mile closer to 5 minutes.

“I didn’t mind,” he said. “I knew that was the way I needed to run the race.”

Bennett had edged Berrian by a single second in the season opener last week.

The team titles were won by Siuslaw’s girls and Thurston’s boys in the meet, which drew all the South Coast schools, as well as several others from the Eugene and Umpqua Valley areas.

The unofficial name for the meet was the Far West League preview meet, since the district meet will be held on the same course next month. But it couldn’t be considered a true preview meet because of the absence of defending girls champion Ally Manley of Brookings-Harbor and the conservative nature used by Siuslaw’s squads.

Manley, a sophomore who also plays soccer for Brookings-Harbor, was at home for the team’s season-opening match against Douglas.

She beat Snook in the Ben Creek Invitational on Saturday, pulling away after passing the Gold Beach sophomore late in the race.

Snook never was challenged Tuesday. Spencer, a sophomore, and Marshfield’s Jana Sadler jockeyed for the second and third spots before Spencer won a sprint to the finish.

Sadler, who finished in 19:44, was pleased with her own race, and her best time on the North Bend course.

“My training has been really hard,” she said. “I thought I did well for the second meet of the season.”

She was 14 seconds faster than her time in the same meet as a sophomore last season.

“I dropped time, which I’m always happy about,” she said.

South Coast runners took five of the first seven spots.

North Bend sophomore Katie Romanko was fourth in 20:19, followed by Myrtle Point freshman Maegan Miranda (20:25), Douglas junior Emily James (20:29) and Pacific sophomore Wren Carter (20:36).

Romanko was happy with her race, and said she trained harder this summer knowing that the team will rely on her more this fall after several team leaders graduated last spring.

“I knew I was going to have to step up,” she said. “I’m happy for the first race. I’m happy for the rest of the team and how they looked.”

North Bend scored 93 points and finished fourth in the team race behind Siuslaw (41), Thurston (48) and Marshfield (72).

The Vikings, four-time defending state champions, ran with a pack mentality Tuesday, knowing they were coming off the Road, Lake and Dune run in Winchester Bay on Saturday and have a big race at Molalla on Saturday.

Linda Paredes, Samantha Pummer, Clarita Twombly and Raelyn Robinson finished 12th through 15th for the Vikings on Tuesday and Lillian Lea was 17th.

Siuslaw’s boys also ran relatively easy, with the exception of Brad Finnell, who won’t race Saturday, Chris Johnson said.

The Vikings could challenge two-time state champion North Bend for the league title next month. The Bulldogs return four members from the champion team, but are without Spenser Lynass and Steven Garboden, who finished second and fourth, with Berrian third, at last year’s state meet.

Berrian said running without Lynass has been different.

“I just wrote an e-mail to Spenser last night saying I missed him,” Berrian said.

The Bulldogs still are top heavy. Dan Flora and Sam Lynass, both veterans of the two champion teams, finished seventh and eighth Tuesday, with Zach Reichenberger, the fourth returning member, taking 18th place. Hunter Hensler, North Bend’s fifth runner, was 36th.

Berrian said the team should improve during the year.

“It’s going to take some growing time,” he said.

Siuslaw showed its strength with six runners between 11th and 22nd — led by Finnell in 11th place. Jesse Wells was 15th, Joe Campbell 17th, Jacob Berkner 19th, Daniel Scott 21st and Brad Greenburg 22nd.

Thurston had four of the top six runners to easily take the team title with 39 points. North Bend had 55, Siuslaw 78 and Marshfield 107.

Bennett was followed across the line by teammate Crosby Green, South Umpqua’s D.J. Flores, and two more Thurston runners — Logan Lewis and Riley Forrest.

Andrew Davidson led Marshfield with a 10th-place finish.

“I’m very happy,” he said after finishing in 17:38. “It wasn’t quite where I wanted to be (17:20), but I ran my splits pretty even, so it was a good day.”

Marshfield sacrificed its one home meet of the Midwestern League season, also scheduled for Tuesday, to participate in North Bend’s meet, which was fine with Davidson.

“It’s fun,” he said. “We get the support of the community. We get lots of people out here.”

Most of the smaller South Coast teams will be together again next Tuesday for the Bandon Invitational at Bullards Beach State Park, while several of the clubs also will participate in the Prefontaine Memorial Run on Sept. 20.