BEA girls fourth, boys fifth at Invite
Woodwick and Eitzmann have top-10 finishes on their home course

Senior Leah Becker was the fourth BEA runner to cross the finish line at the BEA Invite on Oct. 10.
Aubrey Woodwick ran to a fifth-place finish and the Blue Earth Area girls team finished in fourth place at the Blue Earth Area invite which was held on Tuesday, Oct. 10, at Riverside Town and Country Club.
Mountain Lake/Comfrey won the team portion of the meet with 32 points. Finishing second with 54 points was Fairmont while St. James Area was third with 71. BEA’s total of 93 was eight points better than Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial/Nicollet’s fifth-place score of 101.
Fairmont’s Macy Hanson was the top individual runner with a time of 19:46.4.
Woodwick crossed the finish line with a time of 21:53.7. Sidney Eitzmann’s time of 22:48.2 was good for 10th place and Natalie Griffey was 13th in 23:24.3.
Leah Becker had a time of 28:12.8 to place 34th, Makayla Ankeny finished the race in 31:13.1 to take 38th and Myla Eastman was 39th with a time of 32:49.4.
Boys Results
ML/AC was also the winner of the boys’ race with 35 points while Fairmont grabbed second place with 53. BEA finished fifth with 148 points.
Brady Lorenz had the fastest time for the Bucs. He finished the race in 19:21.9 which put him in 22nd place. Devin Haase was 34th in 21:00.0, Marcus Eckles was 39th in 22:21.9, Aiden Donahue was 40th in 22:25.5, Seth Mathews placed 41st in 22:26.8, Owen Jahnke was 42nd in 23:14.43, Oliver Ankeny finished 43rd in 23:39.7, Jason Casey was 44th in 24:41.5 and Gibson Haase was 45th in 25:22.7.
I-90 Invite
The Blue Earth Area cross country teams were back in action on Thursday, Oct. 5, at the I-90 Invite held at Cedar Creek Park in Fairmont.
It was windy but the temperatures were comfortable in the low 60s when the starter’s gun went off to signal the start of the race.
Boys Results
Belle Plaine literally ran away with the championship with 32 points. Finishing 60 points behind the Tigers in second place was Fairmont with 92 points. Worthington nabbed third place with 95 points. Blue Earth Area tied for ninth place with North Union. Both teams had 252 points.
The top runner for the Bucs was once again Brady Lorenz with a time of 18:54 which put him in 35th place.
“That was a personal record for Brady,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “It was his first time he ran under 19 minutes in a competition.”
Devin Haase was the next Buccaneer to cross the finish line. Haase finished 59th with a time of 20:34. Aiden Donahue was the next BEA runner to complete the course. His time of 22:17 put him in 75th place.
“Devin ran his fastest race of the season by more than a minute,” Koenig commented. “Aiden set a personal record by beating his old mark by a solid 50 seconds.”
Seth Mathews finished 80th in 22:39, Marcus Eckles was 83rd in 22:50, Jason Casey was 95th in 23:46, Oliver Ankeny was 96th in 23:47, Owen Jahnke was 98th in 23:54 and Gibson Haase was 108th in 24:51.
“Seth was feeling good and cruised to a season-best time with a bump of 30 seconds and Marcus had a season-best time and just missed having a personal-best time,” Koenig shared. “Jase found his way through the pack while running his first varsity race of the season and Oliver found a new gear and hit a personal record by almost two minutes.”
In the junior high 2000 meter race, Brayden Garlick finished 27th in 9:33, Nolbert Garcia was 29th in 9:58 and Gus Ankeny was 36th in 11:33.
Girls Results
The BEA girls were able to field a full team for the first time this year and they ran to an eighth-place finish with 202 points.
Belle Plaine finished first with a score of 37 points followed by runner-up St. Peter with 91 points. Rounding out the top three spots was Fairmont with 131 points.
Aubrey Woodwick had a time of 21:45 to finish in 16th place while Sidney Eitzmann’s time of 23:13 was good for 29th place.
“Aubrey had her fastest time of the season and was 45 seconds faster than last year on this course,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “Sidney pushed through a tough start and also ended up with a season-best time.”
Natalie Griffey had a personal-record time of 24:49 to finish in 46th place and Leah Becker had her fastest time of the season, 27:37, to finish 64th.
“Natalie ran her first varsity 5k with confidence and set a solid personal record,” Koenig commented. “Leah enjoyed the cooler weather and ran her fastest race of the year by a minute.”
Rounding out the Bucs’ team were Makayla Ankeny who had a time of 320:28 to finish 72nd and Myla Eastman, who finished 78th in 32:04.
“Makayla found her stride and set a season-best mark,” Koenig noted. “It was Myla’s first varsity race of the season and she beat her previous personal-record time by a minute and a half.