HOLSTEIN — For St. Edmond cross country coach Mike Szalat, wins are nice — but getting better is the main goal each time out.

The sixth-ranked Gael girls earned gold at the Tim Thomas meet on Saturday.

St. Edmond (51 points) beat fifth-ranked Alta-Aurelia (89), who has been rated as high as third and had two runners in the Top-Ten of the Class B field. No. 11 (2A) Sioux Central (128) was third.

St. Edmond’s last outing on the track was 12 days ago when they grabbed gold at the Webster City Invitational.

“It’s been a while since we won here,” said Szalat. “It’s good to get a win and finish ahead of Alta-Aurelia (at full-strength), who is ranked ahead of us.

“Everyone knows I’m a die-hard Iowa State fan, and we try to model how we run after their program. We run the way they do, starting out with a slow pace and building on that.”

Manson Northwest Webster was fifth and South Central Calhoun seventh, as both schools each saw a runner place in the Top-5.

The 15th-ranked St. Edmond boys earned a runner-up showing with 90 team points. East Sac County was the Class B team champ with 39 points.

“Friday we shared with the kids their split in the first and second mile,” Szalat said. “They came out a little fast in Webster City, but they did their homework and the differential between the first and second mile was better.”

The fight for the individual crown came between Alta-Aurelia’s fourth-ranked Nora Peterson and Manson Northwest Webster’s sixth-rated Alyssa Richman. Peterson (18:55.39) finished two seconds clear of Richman (18:57.19).

The Gael girls saw four runners cross in the Top-11, and the fifth runner was 31st.

St. Edmond sophomore Anna Lursen (20:53.06) and seniors Hannah Landwehr (20:56.05) and Michaela Leiting (21:10.18) were fifth through seventh for the Gaels.

Junior Ellie Knox (21:31.15) was 11th and senior Reese Lemberg (23:37.92) placed 31st.

“The top four, with Anna, Hannah, Michaela and Ellie, are up there in a pack, and Reese is coming off a sickness and is getting back up there,” Szalat said. “Andee and Nina are right there as well.”

Freshman Nina Smith (24:42.51) was 46th and senior Andee Barwin (24:42.69) was 47th to round out the St. Edmond runners.

On the boys side sophomore Anthony Valles (17:21.29) was fourth for St. Edmond, junior Liam Shannon (18:07.17) was 13th, senior Thomas Cosgrove (19:28.22) was 24th, Levi Odor-Westrum was 28th, and sophomore Thomas Knobbe (19:38.23) was 43rd.

“Our guys are buying into the same system,” Szalat said. “Anthony had a good pace in the first mile and Liam was in the ballpark. Thomas is a little banged up injury-wise, but he had a good meet.”

Freshmen Drake Yurkovac (20:34.75) placed in 51st and Erik Larson (21:33.86) in 56th for the Gaels.

East Sac County senior Parker Engle (16:51.57) was the runner-up, and Ogden’s Carson Van Sickle was the boys gold medalist (16:32.16). Isaiah Aragon (17:28.00) was sixth and Landon Sporrer (17:37.31) was seventh.

The St. Edmond boys are back in action on Sept. 18 when they run at the Humboldt Invitational.