Seth Mathews, above, runs with a runner from USC.

The Blue Earth Area cross country team traveled to Mountain Lake on Friday, Sept. 1, to run in the Metcalf Invite which was held at the Mountain Lake Golf Course.

“It was sunny and hot,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “But, there was a nice breeze.”

The host team from Mountain Lake/Comfrey won the meet with 55 points followed by Jackson County Central with 67. Fairmont rounded out the top-three spots with a total of 72 points.

Although the Bucs were unable to field a complete girls team, Aubrey Woodwick brought home a medal after finishing in 10th place in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 22:14.

Sidney Eitzmann completed the course in 23:47 to finish 22nd and Leah Becker had a time of 28:28 to take 66th.

“Aubrey’s time was a full minute faster compared to last year’s race,” Koenig said. “Sidney passed several people in the last 400 meters to place 22nd with a solid early-season time and Leah pushed through the heat to run almost three and a half minutes faster than last year.”

In the 2,000-meter junior varsity race, Natalie Griffey ran to a fifth-place finish with a personal record time of 8:44.

Myla Anderson recorded a time of 12:36 to place 44th.

The boys’ contest was won by Luverne with 59 points, Mountain Lake/Comfrey was second with 105 and MCC/Fulda placed third with 106.

Brady Lorenz once again paced the Bucs’ efforts with a personal record time of 19:14 which put him in 44th place. Devin Haase finished 78th in 22:10, Seth Mathews was 97th in 24:21, Marcus Eckles was 98th in 24:28, Oliver Ankeny placed 101st in 25:23, Gibson Haase had a time of 26:36 to place 106th, Julian Rodrigues was 108th in 27:39 and Manav Chaudhari was 109th in 28:16.

In the 2,000-meter junior varsity race, Jason Casey finished 24th in 9:15 and Gus Ankeny was 45th in 11:03.