Gael girls third at Thomas Classic
HOLSTEIN — The St. Edmond girls and boys cross country teams ran at the Tim Thomas Classic on Saturday.
The St. Edmond girls came up with a bronze showing, scoring 126 points. Newell-Fonda was the winner of the B class with 68 points. Sibley-Ocheyedan (97) was the runner-up.
Manson Northwest Webster (241) placed 10th.
For St. Edmond, Naomi Valles (22:30.65) was 18th, while Grace Schlegel (22:38.24) took 20th and Anna Lursen (22:59.99) crossed in 24th. Also running for St. Edmond was Lilly Eslick (24:14.86), Alex Leiting (24:31.79), Greenlee Crimmins (24:51.23) and Betsy Gruver (25:57.82) were 85th.
“Naomi and Grace ran well and then we had Anna right there in a pack,” said St. Edmond head coach Mike Szalat. “Grace had a PR again. Naomi did well not getting out too fast.
“Having Anna run for us is great and she dropped eight seconds from her time in Webster City.”
Newell-Fonda’s Mareni Brabec (20:44.10) was the bronze medalist. Quinn Sievers (21:20.44) was ninth and Danika Meyer (22:26.44) took 16th for the Mustangs.
Emmetsburg’s Rachel Schany (21:01.95) was fifth.
For Manson Northwest Webster, Raygin Anderson (23:24.62) was 31st and Kate Hildreth (23:49.70) closed in 35th.
Bishop Garrigan’s Julia Swift (21:00.94) finished in fourth place.
In the Class A girls race, Humboldt captured third with four runners in the Top-20.
The Wildcats had three runners in the Top-5. Avery Fisher (19:41.52), Brynn Malo (20:02.99) and Aubry Fisher (20:03.78) were second, third and fourth, respectively. Macey Rodgers (23:03.57) was 21st.
In the Class B boys race, East Sac County (111) was the runner-up, as Riverside was the team champion with 33 points.
Manson Northwest Webster (293) was 13th, while South Central Calhoun (348) took 14th and St. Edmond (352) finished 15th.
Erik Larson (19:38.50) was the top finisher for the Gaels in 49th. Jonah Carlson (20:28.90) was 66th.
Andrew Barwin (21:00.90), Gordon Seeden (21:19.80), Ethan Cibert (21:58.70), Drew Horrell (22:50.60) and Owen Rutherford (26:46.70) rounded out the Gaels’ lineup.
“We had some guys have good efforts with Anthony (Valles) out,” Szalat said. “Erik had a nice run, while Gordon, Ethan and Drew did well.
“As a program, we did a good job of not getting out too fast.”
East Sac County had a nice pack at the top, with Landon Sporrer (17:28.30), Riley Aragon (17:33.60) and Owen Engel (17:35.90) finishing seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.
Manson Northwest Webster’s Thatcher Oswald was 14th and teammate Kyle Widlund (19:00.90) was 35th.
Declan Spencer (19:22.80) was the top runner for South Central Calhoun in 42nd.
Emmetsburg’s Ben Cox (18:04.00) was 16th.
Humboldt’s Henry Kramer (18:37.40) placed 14th in the Class A race.



