Despite first and second place individual wins in the girls 5K run, Pelham High School was not able to secure the overall team win at its home meet The Beauty at Cahaba Lily Park on Saturday.

Lauren D’Alessio claimed the gold medal with Dena O’Brien following close on her heels to claim the silver with less than a minute separating their time.

The win was D’Alession’s second-straight after winning the Oak Mountain Invitational Sept. 2 with a time of 21:10.64. O’Brien was third in the Oak Mountain race.

“They are going to finish high no matter what race they are in,” Pelham head coach Randy Bunn said.

Though Pelham’s varsity did not claim the first place win as a team, Bunn said he felt optimistic about the season.

“There is no reason why we can’t be in the top five again this year,” Bunn said.

The varsity boys also had high marks individually in the 5K run, with Nick Price claiming silver individually with a time of 19:10.04. The boy’s varsity team placed third overall.

Taking first place as a team in both the girl’s and the boy’s 5K run was Loveless High.

The race, which is called “The Beauty” because of the look of the course, will be followed up by another meet held by Pelham called “The Beast” this Saturday.

“We wanted to host some meets and throw some variety into it,” Bunn said.

Saturday’s run will be held at Ruffin Park, which contrasts the beauty of this week’s site and has a host of obstacles that runners will have to overcome. Bunn said Pelham decided on having the contrasting meets to attract teams to both by offering a chance to run two different courses since most teams won’t come to race the same course twice.