Blair Lunz competes at a recent cross country meet.

It was another beautiful day for running when Blue Earth Area hosted a triangular cross country meet with Fairmont and Jackson County Central at Riverside Town & Country Club on Friday, Sept. 18. Sunny skies and temperatures in the low 60s provided the perfect setting for all of the runners.

Fairmont placed first in the girls portion of the meet with 16 points, JCC was second with 47 and BEA finished third with 75.

“All of the girls had either a personal-best or season-best time today,” BEA coach Tom Plocker noted. “Calli Ferguson improved by four minutes from last week and Allison Redepenning’s time was over five minutes better.”

Rookie runner Eloise Blair once again set the pace for the Bucs in the 5K run with a time of 23:26 and a 14th place finish.

Calli Ferguson finished 16th with a time of 25:58 and Allison Redepenning’s time of 26:18 put her in 18th place.

Elizabeth Jacobson returned from a hamstring injury and had her best time of the year. The junior placed 19th with a time of 27:03.

Leah Becker, Mya Steinhauer and Lily Olson finished within 30 seconds of each other. Becker was 21st with a time of 27:43, Steinhauer was 23rd in 28:04 and Olson was 24th with a time of 28.14.

Mari Vargas ran the course in 31:56 which was good for 26th place while Aubrey Hueper finished 27th with a time of 34:57

Reagan Bromeland and Clarine Greer each ran a 2.5K course with both runners finishing the course in 17:35.

Destinee Griffey had another strong showing in the junior high event.

Griffey ran the 2500 meter course in 11:56 which was good for second place.

Addison Smith crossed the finish line with a time of 12:54 which was good for sixth place and Hope Goette finished 13th with a time of 14:11.

JCC won the boys competition with 24 points. Fairmont claimed second place with 34 points. The Bucs were third with 77 points

A number of the Maroon and Gold boys also had personal-best or season-best times at the meet.

Angel Martinez was the top BEA runner. Martinez finished in 11th place with a time of 19:12.

Cameron Germain recorded a personal best time of 19:40 which was good for 13th place. Zaire Morrow continued to show improvement. His time of 20:35 was a personal best and put him in 17th place.

Nick Frank also recorded a personal best time. He finished in 24th place with a time of 24:22.

Dominic Morrow finished one minute and three seconds behind Frank to take 25th place in 25:25. James Greer was next in 26th place with a time of 25:48.

Vern Johnson had a personal best time of 28:22 to take 28th place. Eli Paz finished one second behind Johnson with a time of 28.23 which put him in 29th place. Shane Levenhagen finished 30th in 28:46.

The boys junior high team was led by Devin Haase who finished the 2500 meter course in 10:47 to take seventh place.

Marcus Eckles and Hayden Vereide had a photo finish with Eckles placing ahead of his teammate by one second. Eckles finished in 12:02 and Vereide in 12:03 to finish in 15th and 16th place respectively. Gibson Haase was not far behind. His time of 12:30 was a personal best and gave him 17th place.

Henry Van Ryn ran an 800 meter course and finished in 9:18.

The cross country teams ran at Loon Lake Golf Club outside of Jackson on Sept. 24. They will travel to Butterfield on Oct 1, where they will compete at Voss Park against St. James and Jackson County Central.