-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Gavin Weber of Algona compete in the boys 5k run during Algona Invitational on Monday at River Road Golf Course

ALGONA — Anthony Valles made a return to action here Monday at the Algona Invitational for the St. Edmond cross country team.

Valles, a returning state medalist, placed 14th overall in a time of 18:07. The senior had missed the past few meets battling an injury.

Gavin Weber of Algona added a silver to his strong season, as the senior finished only behind Henry Hansen of Mason City. Weber went 15:59 compared to the 15:53 by Hansen, a junior.

Forest City had all five counting runners in the Top-20 to take home the team title followed by Clear Lake, Spencer, Algona and Mason City. Spirit Lake was sixth with Webster City, Fort Dodge, Eagle Grove, St. Edmond, Estherville-LC, Charles City, Humboldt and North Union rounding out the standings.

“It was good to see Anthony get back out there and compete,” SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. “He got out way too fast, but that was to be expected with him wanting to race again.

“He knows he has to improve his shape, but considering how little he has ran the past three weeks, he did very well.”

For the Dodgers, junior Jayce Point put together a strong race, placing 23rd overall. Point finished the course in 18:37 as freshman teammate Jones Hensley was 31st.

Corban McHone was 44th, Joos Langkjaer finished 54th, Jaxson Lowrey-Jones was 76th and Myles Summer finished 86th.

“The guys ran very well,” FDSH head coach Joe Jackson said. “It was another hot day and a hilly course, but the effort was excellent. Jayce ran very well and all of the guys are starting to hit their splits on miles.

“Many of them had better splits on the last mile and that shows us that what we are working on in practice is paying off.”

Along with Valles, Erik Larson was 60th, Andrew Barwin 61st and Jonah Carlson 62nd for the Gaels. Gordon Seeden finished 71st, Ethan Cibert was 92nd and Drew Horrell finished 95th.

“Erik is doing a great job of taking on a leadership role,” Szalat said. “I thought our pack did a fantastic job of running together and we had some PRs on a difficult course to judge.”

Webster City’s Justin Callahan just missed out on the Top-10, as the senior was 11th overall in 17:58. Humboldt’s Henry Kramer raced to a 13th overall in 18:06 while Algona’s Brooks Morgan finished 16th.

Ben Cox of Emmetsburg was 20th and Eagle Grove’s Hunter Waldo-Martinez was 31st.

In the junior varsity race, Owen Gruver of Fort Dodge was 77th, teammate Isaiah Grim was 99th and Abram Ribbens of St. Edmond finished 98th.

Next action for both Fort Dodge and St. Edmond will be on Thursday, Oct. 9 at the Fort Dodge Invitational, home of the state cross country championships.