Angel Martinez works his way towards the finish line at the Buccaneer Invitational held on Oct. 11.

Riverside Golf Course located north of Blue Earth was the site of the Buccaneer Cross Country Invitational held on Oct. 11.

Team scores were calculated by the sum of the top seven individual times on a team.

Fairmont won the girls’ competition with a total time of 2:48.38, Mountain Lake Area was second at 2:49.42 and St. James was third at 2:57.42.

Blue Earth Area did not have a complete team, but individually Aubrey Woodwick finished fourth in the 5,000 meter event with a time of 22:15 which was a personal record.

Sidney Eitzmann placed 13th in 24:25, Lola Lundquist came in 25th in 27:00, Leah Becker was 30th in 28:29 and Mya Steinhauer ran a 32:37 to place 40th.

In the 5,000 meter junior varsity race for girls, Makayla Ankeny finished in 29:59 while Myla Eastman had a time of 35:41.

“Aubrey had her second personal record in as many weeks and improved her time from this same meet last year by almost a minute,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “Sidney also recorded her fastest time of the season.”

St. James came out on top for the boys with a time of 21:14.49, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial/Nicollet was second in 2:15:49 and Fairmont was third in 2:15.53.

Mountain Lake Area captured fourth in 2:24:20 and BEA was fifth in 2:43.17.

The top finisher for the Bucs was Angel Martinez who came in 27th with a time of 21:06. Devin Haase finished 30th in 21:44, Brady Lorenz was 34th in 23:01, Seth Mathews came in 36th in 23:36, Jerry Passe took 39th in 24:32, Gibson Haase was 40th in 24:42, Marcus Eckles was 41st in 24:46, Julian Rodriguez took 42 in 25:04 and Manav Chaudhari was 44th in 27:31.

Jase Casey placed fourth in the 5,000 meter junior varsity race with a time of 23:19. Eli Paz took eighth in 26:09 and Shane Levenhagen was 11th in 29:50.

Next up for the cross country teams is the Big South Championship which will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at Fairmont.

I-90 Invite

The Blue Earth Area cross country team competed in the I-90 Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 6. The meet was held at Cedar Creek Park in Fairmont.

“It was a good opportunity for us to compete with some larger schools in the area like Mankato East and Belle Plaine,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “It was great running weather with partly cloudy skies, some wind and temperatures in the 50s.”

Koenig was also pleased with the overall performance of the Bucs.

“On the boys’ side, we had many PRs (personal records) and Aubrey Woodwick set a new PR in the 5K girls’ race.”

Mankato East topped the boys’ field with a score of 46. Belle Plaine was a close second with 52. Worthington was third with 80 and Fairmont was fourth with 147. The Bucs finished the meet with 346 points which put them in 13th place.

Angel Martinez crossed the finish line first for the Bucs. He had a season-best time of 20:22 which put him in 78th place.

Devin Haase finished 93rd with a season-best time of 21:20.

Brady Lorenz had a time of 22:01 which was good for 105th place.

Seth Mathews finished 108th with a time of 22:09 and Jerry Passe was 110th with a time of 22:15. The times for Mathews and Passe were each personal records for the runners.

Also competing for BEA were Aiden Donahue (23:07), Marcus Eckles (23:26), Julian Rodriquez (24:17), Gibson Haase (24:44), Manav Chaudhari (25:52), Eli Paz (25:58) and Shane Levenhagen (27:33).

The times for Rodriquez, Haase, Chaudhari and Paz were all personal records while Donahue and Levenhagen each recorded season-best times.

In the junior high meet, Jase Casey had a personal record time of 8:23 to finish 23rd in the 2,000 meter race.

Belle Plaine won the girls’ competition with 37 points. Mankato East was second with 38 and Fairmont was third with 105. The Bucs did not have a team score.

Woodwick’s personal record time of 22:33 in the 5,000 meter race was good for 23rd place.

Sidney Eitzmann ran a season-best 24:31 which put her in 46th place. Lola Lundquist also recorded a season-best time in the meet. Her time of 25:47 was good for 61st place.

Leah Becker finished 81st with a time of 31:01.

In the girls’ junior high race, Makayla Ankeny had a personal record time of 9:49 while Myla Eastman finished with a time of 12:11, also a personal record.