Submitted photo: The St. Edmond girls cross country squad captured the team title in Holstein on Saturday.

HOLSTEIN — The St. Edmond cross country squads shook the rust off with a strong performance here Saturday at the Tim Thomas Classic.

The Gael girls claimed the Class B team title of the Tim Thomas Classic, while the SEHS boys were second to Riverside. The meet also served as the CYO meet for 2024, with the Gael boys placing first and the girls second to Sioux City Heelan.

“I’m very happy up and down the lineup with how the kids performed,” St. Edmond head coach Mike Szalat said. “We had 13 of the 24 record PRs, and we beat some really quality teams. Our gaps shortened between our lead runners and the next pack.

“You can really tell that the kids put in work over the summer.”

Anthony Valles led the way by winning boys race with a time of 16:46 — over 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Redge Potts from South Central Calhoun. Manson Northwest Webster’s Thatcher Oswald claimed bronze. Landon Sporrer of East Sac County was eighth.

“Congrats to Anthony on a fine run,” Szalat said. “He wants to push the pace, and I’ve realized that I just have to let him because he’s talented enough to do it.

“My son, Ryan, stopped to watch on his way home and said he has that ‘(Steve) Prefontaine mentality’ when it comes to running. Not in terms of having arrogance about him, but he has a time in his mind he wants and he goes out there to get it. It’s a lot like what (former Gael standout runner) Aaron Lursen had.”

Liam Shannon and Levi Odor-Westrum both placed inside the Top-20 for St. Edmond, as Shannon was 16th in 17:56 and Odor-Westrum came home in 19th in 18:12. Erik Larson took 40th, Drake Yurkovac placed 71st, Jonah Carlson finished 74th and Thomas Knobbe was 84th.

“Liam got under 18 for the first time, which is that’s a positive,” Szalat said. “Levi closed the gap, and that’s huge for us.

“Both Erik and Drake ran PRs, and Thomas and Jonah are coming off two great weeks of practice.”

Anna Lursen paced the St. Edmond girls, coming away with a 13th place finish overall in 21:19. Ellie Knox was 15th in 21:23, Naomi Valles placed 31st in 22:57, Lily Eslick was 35th, Nina Smith finished 36th, Alex Leiting was 47th and Betsy Gruver finished 62nd.

“The girls ran great times and still felt like they left some out there,” Szalat said. “We’re decreasing our spread, the freshmen are adjusting and keep getting better, the sophomores put in so much work over the offseason, and I can never take what our lead runners do for us for granted.

“It’s just a well-rounded team. It’s exciting to see us getting better and better each day.”

The Gaels recorded 86 points to place ahead of Alta-Aurelia and Ridge View.

Manson Northwest Webster’s Alyssa Richman was second in the B race in 19:03 behind Twin Lakes Conference rival Nora Peterson of Alta-Aurelia. Julia Swift from Bishop Garrigan was fourth and Newell-Fonda’s Mareni Brabec placed 19th.

Valles was the CYO champ, with Shannon, Odor-Westrum, Lursen and Knox making the all-CYO team. On the girls’ side, Lursen was third overall, Shannon and Knox finished fourth, and Odor-Westrum was fifth.

In junior varsity action, sophomore Abby Tofilon picked up gold. Teammates McKenna Kvale, Jennifer Touney and Josie Harvey placed fourth, fifth and sixth overall.

For the Gael boys JV team, Evan Christiansen was 22nd and Logan Reed placed 30th.

Grace Schlegel was third for the St. Edmond middle school girls. Gael teammate Adelyn Bangert took 24th.

Gordon Seeden led the St. Edmond boys with a 51st place finish.

Up next for the Gaels will be a meet on Monday, Sept. 23 in Humboldt at Joe Sheldon County Park.