-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Anthony Valles of St. Edmond compete in the boys 5k run during Dodgers Invitational on Thursday at Lakeside Golf Course

Anthony Valles put together the perfect race to leave his name in the St. Edmond cross country record books here Thursday night.

Valles broke the school-record for sophomore runners with a 16:39.7 at the Fort Dodge Invitational — the same course that will host both the North Central Conference meet and the state championships later this month.

Behind his 53rd-place performance, the Gaels were 22nd overall in the Class 4A-loaded field.

Liam Shannon, a sophomore, placed 135th overall in a time of 17:57 with Levi Odor-Westrum, a junior, in 171st in 19:11. Senior Thomas Cosgrove was 172nd in 19:18 followed by sophomore Thomas Knobbe (177th/19:35), freshman Erik Larson (192nd/20:53) and sophomore Jonah Carlson (197th/21:22).

“Anthony just keeps getting better and better,” SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. “He has shown incredible growth this year and his confidence just continues to grow with each race.

“He really is a hard-working kid who gets his work ethic from his mom. We set goals for him and he has been faster than those.”

Valles broke the previous mark set by Josh Madsen at 16:57, which he also tied earlier this year at the Algona meet.

Shannon posted his first time under 18 minutes while Knobbe knocked 30 seconds off his previous personal-record.

“We are just really happy with all the kids,” Szalat said. “This meet isn’t one where we can take into consideration placing, we just have to look at times and how they are competing.

“Plus, we were able to get an early look at the NCC course and hopefully for the state course by running out there.”

The St. Edmond girls were 19th overall out of 25 teams as Michaela Leiting, Anna Lursen, Hannah Landwehr and Ellie Knox all cracked the Top-100.

Leiting, a senior, was 94th in 20:55, Lursen, a sophomore, was 97th in 21:02, Landwehr, a senior, was 98th in 21:03, and Knox, a junior, was 99th in 21:04.

“Those Top-4 train together and run together, and on any given night, one can lead the rest,” Szalat said. “We’ve always wanted to have a group like this that runs in a pack. We don’t take this for granted because it’s been fun to watch.

“They know that running together makes us a better team.”

Reese Lemberg, a senior, placed 139th overall (22:57) with freshman Nina Smith (158th/23:57) and senior Andee Barwin (159th/24:03) behind her.

“Reese had a great race, getting under 23 for the first time,” Szalat said. “As a whole, this group has just been so fun to be around. We are soaking it all in as coaches and enjoying the time we have left together.”

St. Edmond will host the NCC meet on Tuesday.