By Brian Tschetter –

On Tuesday, October 5, the Southwest Christian / Edgerton runners took part in the Montevideo Cross Country Invitational Meet. The event was held on the hills of the River Crest Golf Course. It was a warm day with little breeze for the runners. This course dealt the athletes some significant hills scattered throughout. Traveling a bit farther provided some competition against some of the teams from the northern part of our section that we don’t see too often. Ten teams competed in the meet from: BOLD / BLH, Benson / KMS, Central Christian / Willmar Community Christian, Lakeview, Lac qui Parle Valley – Dawson – Boyd, MACCRAY-Renville County West, Montevideo, Ortonville, Yellow Medicine East, and SWC / Edgerton.

The junior high race was a 2300 meter course (1.43 miles). The girls and boys were run at the same time but placed and scored separately. There were 29 girls entered in the race. Hannah Masselink (9:46) ran her way to an 8th place finish while teammate, Kalli Blom (10:58) finished 18th. Annaliese Wood of Central Christian won the event in 9:16.

Jayven Kooiker ran 9:28 which earned him a 14th place finish in the junior high boys race. There were 26 boys that competed with Jackson Marcus of Central Christian winning in 8:19.

Next on the course was the girls’ varsity 5000 meter and that featured 36 runners. Maddie Fick had an excellent race as she ran to a 6th place finish in 23:10. Kinsie Nelson (23:47) and Kierra Binford (23:56) both ran very strong races as they placed 10th and 11th. Shaylee Van Essen (25:07) finished 18th. The pair of Olivia Muyskens (25:55) and Kathryn Prins (26:44) rounded out the team in 22nd and 23rd. Brooklyn Conrad from Ortonville won the event in 21:56. The girls as a team had a fabulous race as they put three in the top 11, four in the top 18, and all seven runners in the top 25. That great team outing put them right in the thick of thinks for the team title. They came up just short as Benson – KMS won with 34 points. Central (42) just edged out the Eagles (44) for second and third. Montevideo followed with 98.