The Blue Earth Area cross country team saw their first competitive action of the 2026 season when they traveled west to Fairmont on Friday, Aug. 28 to compete in the Early-Bird Invite held at the Fairmont High School.

The Bucs were able to field varsity/junior varsity and junior high teams for both the girls and boys squads at their opening meet.

Girls Results

Aubrey Woodwick and Sidney Eitzmann both broke into the top 20 in the girls 4000-meter varsity/junior varsity competition. Woodwick finished 15th with a time of 18:27 while Eitzmann was 10 seconds behind her teammate in 17th place with a personal record time of 18:37.

April Garcia and Makayla Ankeny were separated by only half of a second with Garcia finishing 69th with a time of 24:32 and Ankeny finishing 70th with a time of 24:32.5.

“Our captains, Aubrey and Sidney led the way with only a 10-second gap between them,” BEA cross country coach Peter Koenig said. “April and Makayla decided to share the same time with April edging out Makayla by half a second.”

Rounding out the varsity results were Natalie Griffey finishing 73rd in 25:12, Sakura Harding finishing 75th in 26:14 and Grace Evenson placing 78th in 27:07.

St. Peter won the team part of the competition with 24 points while Fairmont claimed the runner-up spot with 63. Mountain Lake was third with 96, Maple River was fourth with 99, Jackson County Central was fifth with 125, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial was sixth with 131, St. James had 165 to take seventh place and BEA was eighth with 181.

The Bucs did very well in the junior high race with McKenna Roper earning first place with a time of 8:30 in the 2000-meter race and Athenea Ortiz placing second in 8:45. Rose Evenson was eighth in 9:31 and Sophie Trubenback was 12th in 9:55.

Boys Results

Mountain Lake won the team portion of the boys 4000-meter varsity/junior varsity race with a score of 63 to finish 10 points ahead of second-place St. Peter who had a score of 73. Fairmont was third with 90, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton/Waterville-Elysian-Morristown was fourth with 96, Tri-City United was fifth with 130, St. James was sixth with 140, Jackson County Central was seventh with 155, Maple River finished eighth with 174, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial was ninth with 185 and the Bucs were 10th with 279.

Oliver Ankeny was the top finisher for BEA with a time of 18:20 which put him in 55th place. Gus Ankeny was the next BEA runner to cross the finish line. His time of 19:35 was good for 65th place.

The next three Bucs to finish the race were less than four seconds apart in their times.

Memphis Johnson was 71st in 20:19, Caleb Goshorn was 72nd in 20:21 and Gabe Petersen was 73rd in 20:23.

Sam Bell had a time of 2139 to finish 79th and Aric Walter was 85th in 30:20.

The Bucs also had seven boys compete in the junior varsity race. Ira Steele was 11th in 8:49, Henry Ankeny finished 22nd in 9:37, Jacob Hinkle placed 28th in 10:10, Jayden Chiguil was 29th in 10:17, Ryker Guggisberg had a time of 10:46 to place 33rd, Blake Mathews was 34th in 10:58 and William Harding finished 38th in 12:22.

Blue Earth’s cross country teams were back in action on Friday, Sept. 4 when they competed in the Mountain Lake Invite held at the Mountain Lake Golf Course. Look for results of that meet in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.