Daly Park south of Mapleton was the site of the 2026 Maple River Cross Country Invitational held on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Girls Results

Five teams competed in the girls 5000-meters varsity race with Maple River capturing first place with 48 points to edge the second-place team from Minnesota Valley Lutheran who finished with 55 points. Jackson County Central came in third with 68 points, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton/Waterville-Elysian-Morriston was fourth with 80 and BEA was fifth with 83.

Two Buccaneer girls, Aubrey Woodwick and Sidney Eitzmann, finished in the top-10 in the varsity race. Woodwick finished seventh with a time of 23:25 while Eitzmann was 10th in 23:48.

Natalie Griffey placed 16th with a time of 25:45 and April Garcia was 29th in 29:09.

Grace Evenson, Makayla Ankeny, Sakura Harding and Analiz Leal also competed in the varsity race.

“What a hard run race by the girls,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “There was some awesome racing with some amazing finishes. Aubrey and Sidney both had great showings and landed in the top 10 and Natalie also had a great race.”

McKenna Roper of the Bucs finished in first place in the 1600-meter junior high run with a time of 7:56. Athenea Ortiz was second in 9:15, Rose Evenson was sixth in 9:32 and Sophie Trubenback was 11th in 10:39.

Boys Results

The boys competition saw Minnesota Valley Lutheran race to a first-place finish with 39 points followed by Jackson County Central who was close behind with 43 points. Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton/Waterville-Elysian-Morriston was third with 69 points, United South Central placed fourth with 104, Maple River was fifth with 107 and BEA came in sixth with 161.

Oliver Ankeny was the top finisher for the Bucs with a time of 21:51 to finish in 32nd place. Gus Ankeny was 39th in 22:47, Sam Bell placed 40th in 22:50, Gave Petersen was 42nd in 23:01, Caleb Goshorn was 43rd in 23:23 and Memphis Johnson was 45th in 23:40.

“The fellas got on the course and pushed themselves just like we’d been talking about in practice,” Koenig said. “We busted out of our comfort zones and got into some real racing.”

In the 1600-meter junior high race, BEA’s Ira Steele was fourth in 8:22, Jayden Chiguil was eighth in 8:39, Henry Ankeny was 12th in 8:56, Jacob Hinkle finished 17th in 10:00, Blake Mathews was 18th in 10:28, William Harding was1 9th in 11:30 and Aric Walter was 22nd in 12:43.

The cross country teams were back in action on Sept. 24 at the Jackson Golf Course. Look for the results of that meet in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.