Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: St. Edmond's Anthony Valles competes at the state cross country meet at Lakeside on Friday. For more photos, please visit CU.messengernews.net

Anthony Valles put together a sophomore cross country season that is sure to set him up for a strong closing two years.

Valles led the St. Edmond boys here Friday at the Class 1A state meet, placing 14th overall. The Gaels were 15th in the final team standings.

Lake Mills captured its first state title by 26 points over ACGC with Woodbine coming in third. Woodbine senior Landon Bendgen earned his second consecutive title at Lakeside Golf Course in 15:55.03.

Along with Valles, Liam Shannon finished 81st, Thomas Cosgrove was 106th, Thomas Knobbe placed 142nd, Jonah Carlson was 145th, Erik Larson 149th and Abram Ribbens 153rd.

Earlier this year, Valles won the North Central Conference title and was district runner-up. He had a time of 16:35.5 on Friday, which was just ahead of Ogden’s Carson Van Sickle.

After the first mile, Valles was 16th overall, clocking a time of 5:08.2. He moved up a spot after the second, finishing in 5:30.1, with a final mile-plus of 5:57.2.

“What a big day for Anthony,” SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. “He moved up throughout the race just like we always preach. The first mile is always fast and that concerns me, but he did a great job drafting behind the lead pack.

“His splits were about as nice as you could have and his future is very bright.”

Last year, Aaron Lursen was 10th for the Gaels in a time of 16:39.30.

“It’s really impressive and shows just how fast the field was when comparing it to last year and Aaron,” Szalat said. “Anthony should be one of the top returning finishers coming back.”

Shannon, a junior, moved up from 100th to his finishing spot, while Cosgrove, the lone senior, went from 133rd after the first mile to 106th.

“Liam has had another real nice season,” Szalat said. “Thomas ran two really great races to close out his career. He did a solid job of leading these guys all season and really exemplifies what St. Edmond cross country is with how he ran.”

The Gaels were competing without regulars Levi Odor-Westrum and Drake Yurkovac. Odor-Westrum is a junior, Knobbe and Carlson sophomores, and Larson, Ribbens and Yurkovac freshmen.

“We should have some pretty high expectations going into next year,” Szalat said. “Two guys from our scoring group were injured and they’ll be back, and we lose just one senior, so the expectations should be to get back here again.”

Shannon, Valles, Cosgrove and Knobbe were all runners on the eighth place team last year, while Shannon and Cosgrove ran on the 10th place team in 2021. This was the fourth consecutive season St. Edmond has qualified, as they were 12th in 2020.