Woodwick is eighth at Fairmont race
Cross country teams participated in their first event of the season

Blue Earth’s Aubrey Woodwick ran to an eighth-place finish at the Early-Bird Invite hosted by the Fairmont Cardinals on Friday, Aug. 25.
Blue Earth Area’s cross country teams competed in their first meet of the year on Friday, Aug. 25, when they traveled to Fairmont for the Early-Bird Invite.
Six other teams of runners joined the host Fairmont Cardinals to battle the heat and humidity while completing the 4,000-meter course.
Girls Results
Aubrey Woodwick paced the Buccaneer’s girls with an eighth place finish in a time of 18:27.6. The time was also a personal record for Woodwick at the 4,000-meter distance.
Also setting a personal record was Sidney Eitzmann with a time of 19:44.4 which put her in 18th place.
“Sidney passed three girls after the two mile mark to finish in the top 20 and post a new personal record,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “It was nice to see Aubrey bring home some hardware with her eighth- place finish.”
BEA’s other varsity runner, Leah Becker, completed the course in 24:13.5.
St. Peter won the team title with 39 points followed by runner-up Mountain Lake who tallied 58. BEA did not generate a team score due to a lack of competitors.
In the 2,000-meter junior high race, Natalie Griffey ran to a sixth place finish with a personal-record time of 9:20.6. Myla Eastman also recorded a personal-best time of 11:55.4.
Boys Results
Mountain Lake grabbed the top honors for the boys in the 4,000-meter competition with 48 total points to finish 20 points ahead of second-place Fairmont who tallied 68 points. Jackson County Central was third with 72. BEA finished seventh with 171.
Brady Lorenz set the pace for the BEA team with a time of 15:55.8. Devin Haase posted a time of 17:21.6 and Seth Mathews finished the race in 19:00.5.
Marcus Eckles ran the race in 20:06.06, Gibson Haase finished in 21:09.3, Oliver Ankeny’s time was 22:06.4, Manav Chaudhari completed the race in 23:14.5 and Julian Rodriguez finished with a time of 27:05.5.
Lorenz, Devin Haase, Eckles, Gibson Haase and Oliver Ankeny all set new personal records for 4,000 meters at the meet.
“Brady missed last year’s meet, but threw down a great race,” Koenig commented. “Devin and Marcus ran almost 30 seconds faster than last year. Oliver ran his inaugural 4k race after being sidelined with injuries last year.”
In the 2,000-meter junior high race, Gus Ankeny finished with a personal-record time of 10:29.9.
The BEA cross country teams participated in the Mountain Lake Invitational on Friday, Sept. 1. Look for the results from that meet in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.