It was a great day last Saturday for several runners, as they beat quality competition and took home titles at the second annual Snoqualmie Railroad Days road race.

The winner of the men’s five-kilometer run was Max O’Donoghue-McDonald, a redshirt sophomore who competes for the University of Washington men’s cross country team. The Seattle resident clocked a time of 15 minutes, 22 seconds.

“My official season for cross country starts in a week,” O’Donoghue-McDonald said. “I’ve been hurt for a while. I wanted to get out here, run hard, because I haven’t raced like this for a year and a half.”

O’Donoghue-McDonald planned to tag along with whoever went into the lead.

“There was a guy who was going pretty fast, so I just followed him,” he said. “He ended up going the 10k, so I just made the right turn for the 5k.”

The women’s five-kilometer winner was Port Orchard’s Kristi Houk, with a time of 18:04.

The top men’s finisher in the 10-kilometer race was Selah’s Mark Currell, who came in with a time of 31:11.

Currell said he ran as hard as he could.

“It’s definitely not the same as going around a track,” he said.

On the women’s side, Seattle’s Vanessa Hunter came in first, clocking 34:47.

“I ran a 10k on the track last Wednesday night,” she said. “I really wanted to run a (personal record) and I did by five seconds, so I guess that counts,” Hunter said.

The top Valley finisher in the 5k race was Snoqualmie’s Alex Kampp, who ran a time of 18:36 for 13th place. The best local finisher in the 10k was North Bend’s Zac Pearlstein, who finished 32nd overall with a time of 37:50.

Pearlstein, who will be a senior this fall at Mount Si High School, wasn’t the only Wildcat track and field athlete who did well. Fellow senior Alex Rudd won her age group(15-19) in the women’s 10k with a time of 42:58.

The event attracted a much larger and tougher field this year, as it served as the host race for the Pacific Northwest Track and Field 10k Championships.

Hunter praised race organizer Sean Sundwall.

“The course was great,” she said. “Sean does a fabulous job. This course and just the organization of it is a testament to the fact that Sean is a high-quality runner. He understands the needs of the community, but also what the elite athletes need.”

A large number of children and their parents participated in the one-kilometer children’s run, also part of the Railroad Days run.

Full race results are available at www.buduracing.com.