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HAMPTON – The St. Edmond cross country team kicked off postseason running here on Tuesday, competing in the North Central Conference Championships.
The Gael girls placed sixth overall, as Naomi Valles and Grace Schlegel cracked the Top-20.
Clear Lake claimed team honors on the girls’ side by 23 points over Humboldt. Forest City was third, Garner-Hayfield/Ventura fourth and Algona fifth.
Charles City's Meghan Korbel held off Humboldt's Aubry Fisher, Jade Malo and Avery Fisher for the individual title.
Korbel clocked a time of 19:12, with Fisher, Malo and Fisher all finishing nearly at the same time for third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Valles, a junior, was 14th in 21:51, while Schlegel, a sophomore, placed 19th in 22:05. Lily Eslick was 41st, Mae Pokorny 47th, Greenlee Crimmins 51st, Betsy Gruver 59th and Alex Leiting 66th for St. Edmond.
"There was a huge downpour right before the middle school races started that caused some nasty conditions to deal with," SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. "Grace was on her way to a PR when she slipped and fell because of that. She said it really threw her off, so to still finish as well as she did was a positive.
"Naomi really ran a great race, as did Lily. We finished higher as a team than I thought we would, so that was another positive."
Algona's Charli Dodds placed 11th and Webster City's Izzy Grossoehme was 13th. London Parrott paced Eagle Grove, as she was 15th.
Clear Lake also claimed the team title for the boys over Forest City, Iowa Falls-Alden, Garner-Hayfield/Ventura and Algona. St. Edmond took 10th overall.
Senior Erik Larson led the way for the Gaels, as he was 30th in 18:47. Aidan Reel came in right behind him in 31st in 18:47.
St. Edmond’s Ethan Cibert was 64th, Gordon Seeden 67th, William Gubbels 79th, Ashton Kuker 81st and Abram Ribbens 82nd.
"Erik and Aidan both ran good races, and like Grace, Gordon overcame a slip during the race," Szalat said. "We've got nine days now to get healthy and prepared for our best race of the year."
Freshman Tate Tysdahl of Clear Lake won the race in 16:47.
Algona's Brooks Morgan placed 11th overall, with teammates Axton Hood 13th and Landon Becker 15th. Humboldt's Henry Kramer was 17th, with Webster City's Daniel Murillo-Delfin and Aiden Wardell finishing 18th and 19th.
In junior varsity races, Adelyn Bangert was 24th, Jennifer Touney 37th, Mary Ella Gruver 38th and Lizzy Tiernan 50th for the Gael girls. Dylan Brokaw was 73rd, Vincent Pearson 74th, Liam Duong 87th and Owen Rutherford 88th for the SEHS boys.
St. Edmond will head to Jewell next Thursday for a Class 1A state qualifying meet.