Eloise Blair continues to improve in her first year of running cross country for BEA.

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers cross country teams traveled to St. Peter on Thursday, Sept. 10 to compete against the Fairmont Cardinals and the host Saints.

Weather conditions were ideal with many runners posting personal best times during the event.

The Fairmont girls dominated the meet with 18 points. St. Peter took second with 52 and BEA took third with 99.

First-year runner Eloise Blair continued to improve and led the girls varsity for the third consecutive meet with a personal best time of 26:34 for the 5K race. Her time was good for a 16th place finish. Blair had a time of 13:39 at the split and ran the last half of the race in 12:55.

Calli Ferguson marked her cross country debut with a time of 29:58 which was good for 21st place.

Angel Martinez has been the top runner for the boys cross country team this year.

Mya Steinhauer ran the course in 30:04 and finished in 23rd place.

Finishing 26th was Allison Redepenning with a time of 31:46.

Lily Olson completed the course in 31:50 to take 27th place, Leah Becker finished 28th with a time of 32:26 and Mari Vargas completed her first-ever 5K in a time of 33:30.

In the girls junior high 2500 meter race, Addison Smith posted the best placing of her young career with a time of 13:13 and a third place finish. It was also a personal best time for Smith.

Destinee Griffey finished in 12th place with a time of 15:57 and Hope Goette took 16th with a time of 16:13.

Fairmont also finished in first place in the boys 5K race with 28 points. The Saints were right behind the Cards with 30 points while the Bucs finished with 68 points to take third place.

Angel Martinez once again set the pace for the BEA boys runners by finishing ninth with a time of 20:58.

Cameron Germain posted his best time of the season at 21:06 which was good for 11th place.

Damion Mahlstedt and Blair Lunz battled it out on the course with Mahlstedt finishing in 13th place with a time of 22:28 and Lunz taking 14th with a time of 22:39.

Zaire Morrow turned in a personal best time of 23:16 to finish in 18th place.

Senior Nick Frank made his debut in cross country with a time of 25:51 which landed him in 24th place.

Dominic Morrow finished in 26th place with a personal best time of 26:31.

James Greer ran the course in 28:09 to finish 28th. Vern Johnson was 29th with a time of 30:18.

Eli Paz finished 30th in 30:39 and Shane Levenhagen finished 31st in 31:14.

The boys had four runners compete in the 2500 meter race.

Devin Haase took eighth place in 11:38. Hayden Vereide was 13th in 12:39. Marcus Eckles took 14th at 12:54 and Gibson Haase ran the course in 13:36 to finish 15th.

Henry Van Ryn ran his first cross country race and ran a 700 meter course in 7:32.