BEA’s Courtney Grandgenett was the first Buc girls runner to cross the finish line in 16:45.9 to place 31st

The Blue Earth Area’s varsity cross country teams both finished in the top half of their respective 32-team fields at the Redbird Invitational held Thursday at Montgomery.

The girls took 11th with 364 points and the boys were 13th with 366.

Prior Lake captured the girls championship with 47 points, while Mound Westonka tallied 119 to take first place in the boys competition.

Two teams the Bucs will face in the Section 2A Championships and are among the favorites were in the “Top 5.”

The Waseca girls had 97 points to take third while, while the boys team was second with 127.

Aaron Wilhelmi led the boys team with a 44th-place time of 18:40.8.

Fairmont finished fourth in the girls competition with 186 points and the Cardinal boys were sixth with 163 points.

In the girls 4,000-meter race, there were 216 competitors.

BEA again was led by Courtney Grandgenett’s 31st-place time of 16:45.9.

Marissia Hagedorn crossed the finish line in 17:13.7 to finish 43rd overall, while Rylee Wagner’s time of 18:07 was good enough for 77th.

Meghan Mittelstadt was 34 seconds behind Wagner to finish 104th in 18:41.4.

The last Buc runner to figure in the team scoring was Mandy Warmka, who was 109th overall with a time of 18:46.7.

Two other varsity runners finished 182nd and 194th.

MacKenzie Determan covered the course in 20:56.6 and Kelly Aukes was clocked in 22:17.2.

On the boys side, Aaron Wilhelmi was the first Buc to complete the 5,000-meter race, which had 208 runners.

Wilhelmi’s time of 18:40.8 put him in the 44th spot overall.

Foreign exchange student Jonas Hamperl was 53rd in 18:49.4, followed by Riley Holmseth in 66th place with a time of 19:02.7.

The fourth BEA runner to finish was Abi Vasquez with a 77th-place time of 19:19.5.

Jake Zebedee rounded out the Buc scoring by taking 126th in 20:23.5. Jason Mertens’ time of 21:19.2 was 152nd overall and Hans Kittleson took 193rd in 23:41.

Girls teams results:

Prior Lake 47, Shakopee 82, Waseca 97, Fairmont 186, New Prague 203, The Blake School 243, Waconia 249, Mound Westonka 276, Farmington 279, Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin 299, BEA 364, United South Central/Alden-Conger 376, Mahtomedi 393, Medford 411, Madelia-Truman 446, Central NYA 449, Jackson County Central 449, Glencoe-Silver Lake 498, Mankato Loyola 528, Zumbrota Mazeppa/Kellogg Wabasha 537, St. James 572, Jordan 575, Sibley East-Arlington 603, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial-Nicollet 614, Montgomery Lonsdale 658, Le Sueur-Henderson 676, Belle Plaine 683, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva 750, Maple River 815, Mayer Lutheran 826, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 829, St. Peter 833.

Boys teams results:

Mound Westonka 119, Waseca 127, Farmington 133, Jackson County Central 143, Prior Lake 155, Fairmont 163, The Blake School 187, Mahtomedi 190, Shakopee 229, Glencoe-Silver Lake 266, Le Sueur-Henderson 324, New Prague 347, BEA 366, St. James 369, Waconia 424, Belle Plaine 455, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 548, Maple River 555, Madelia-Truman 571, Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin 589, United South Central-Alden-Conger 602, Mankato Loyola 607, Sibley East-Arlington 650, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial-Nicollet 654, Minnesota Valley Lutheran 655, Montgomery-Lonsdale 695, Zumbrota-Mazeppa-Kellogg Wabasha 722, St. Peter 725, Central NYA 746, Medford 762, Jordan 834, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva 853.