Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: Anthony Valles of St. Edmond runs in the boys portion of the Southeast Valley Invitational on Thursday in Gowrie.

GOWRIE — Anthony Valles put together a dominating race here Thursday to begin the cross country season, winning the Southeast Valley Invitational.

Behind gold by Valles, St. Edmond finished fourth overall, as East Sac County captured the team title. Greene County was second and Manson Northwest Webster placed third.

Fort Dodge was fifth, the host Jaguars finished eighth, South Central Calhoun placed 11th and Newell-Fonda was 12th.

Valles, one of the top returning state runners in Class 1A from a year ago, is ranked second to begin this season. The senior clocked a time of 17:08.16, besting MNW’s Thatcher Oswald by six seconds.

Landon Sporrer and Owen Engel of East Sac County were third and fourth, as teammate Riley Aragon finished sixth. Brady Carstensen from Greene County placed ninth and Kyle Widlund of Manson Northwest Webster was 10th.

For Newell-Fonda, Austin Barber finished 13th, Lincoln Akins led Southeast Valley by finishing in 25th and South Central Calhoun’s Declan Spencer was 31st.

“Anthony ran a really smart race,” SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. “He likes to get out fast and did, but had to fight off Thatcher and Landon before breaking free around the two-mile mark.

“Those are going to be some of his competition this year because both dropped down from 2A.”

Erik Larson placed 14th, as the junior went 19:01. Aidan Reel placed 32nd overall for the Gaels while freshman Andrew Barwin was 36th.

“Erik dropped over a minute off his 5K time trial from the preseason, which was really good to see,” Szalat said. “And Andrew didn’t run in middle school, but for that kid, the sky is the limit in this sport. He has a very bright future.

“Overall, I was just really happy with the entire group. I wasn’t sure how we would perform, but we came out and had a really nice race.”

Jones Hensley was the top finisher for the Dodgers, as the freshman finished 22nd in 19:46. Teammate Aidan Recker, a senior, was 24th while Joos Langkjaer was 35th and Elijah Lawrence finished 38th.

“Jones really surprised me,” FDSH head coach Joe Jackson said. “He ran a great race, especially for his first high school race. All of the times for the guys were an improvement from last year.

“I was just really pleased with the entire team.”

St. Edmond, Fort Dodge, Manson Northwest Webster and Southeast Valley will be back in action on Tuesday when they head to the Webster City Invitational. That field also features Algona, Clarion-Goldfield/Dows, Eagle Grove, Humboldt, Webster City Ballard, Belmond-Klemme, Boone, Gilbert, Hampton-Dumont/CAL, Nevada, Roland-Story, South Hamilton and Waverly-Shell Rock.