The Blue Earth Area cross country teams were back in action at the Maple River Invite on Thursday, Sept. 14, at Daly Park, which is located south of Mapleton.

Maple River placed first on their home turf with 37 points with Waterville-Elysian-Morristown/Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton taking second with 44 points.

Once again the BEA girls did not field a complete team but had some outstanding individual performances led by Aubrey Woodwick and Sidney Eitzmann who each cracked the top 10 in the final standings.

Woodwick’s time of 22:52 was good for third place and Eitzmann finished 10th with a time of 24:51.

“It was a great race for the girls. Aubrey came out strong, then fought to pass two girls in her last mile,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “Sidney started passing people and didn’t stop. She overtook seven competitors between the one mile mark and the finish line. It was an amazing effort to take 10th place.”

Leah Becker ran to a 27th place finish in 28:27 and Makayla Ankeny was 35th in 31:05.

“Leah is liking the slightly cooler weather. She ran a season’s best 28:27 which was 5:33 better than last year’s meet,” Koenig commented. “Makayla ran her first 5K of the season and her first varsity race on this course and finished with a solid effort in 31:05.”

In the junior high race, BEA’s Natalie Griffey finished first with a time of 9:12 and Myla Eastman placed sixth in 12:09.

“Natalie cruised to the front of the girls pack in her race and stayed there to win the race,” Koenig said. “Myla ran a good race to take sixth.”

The BEA boys’ team placed third with 72 points. First place went to Minnesota Valley Lutheran with 25 points and the runner up was WEM/JWP with 54.

The Bucs were led by Brady Lorenz who placed sixth with a time of 19:40. Devin Haase was the next Buc to cross the finish line in 22:02 which put him in 18th place.

“Brady ran his race four minutes and 10 seconds faster than he ran it last year,” Koenig remarked. “Devin was one of many BEA runners who had their best times of the season.”

Aiden Donahue had a season-best time of 23:55 to place 29th.

Marcus Eckles was 31st in 24:14, Gibson Haase finished 32nd in 25:10 and Julian Rodriguez was 33rd in 25:20. It was the season-best time for all three runners.

Placing 36th was Oliver Ankeny in 26:37. Manav Chaudhari recorded a season-best time of 27:48 to place 42nd and Gustavo Chavero had a personal-record time of 32:43 to place 44th.

In the 1600-meter junior high race, Jase Casey had a time of 8:50 to take fourth place, Gus Ankeny was 12th in 11:30 and Brayden Garlick was 13th in 11:31.