The Britton-Hecla cross country team competed in a pair of meets in the past week, traveling to the Aberdeen Roncalli Invitational on Thursday and the Deuel Invite in Clear Lake on Monday.
This week the local runners were back in action at the Groton Invitational on Tuesday.
“Our meet at Roncalli went really well,” said B-H coach Stephanie Symens. “It was a beautiful day to run and there wasn’t much wind. We are getting stronger and settling into the season. This week we are already at the midpoint of our season and we’ll continue to put in miles and work on our pacing through our races.
Despite the cold and rainy day, we ran really well at Deuel,” adaded Symens. “The 10 members that we took either had a personal record or a season-best time. I was very happy with how our runners competed in this type of weather. Now we get to practice for the rest of the week and have two meets next week before we go into conferences.”
Eleven B-H runners participated in the Roncalli meet, led by Joseph O’Brien’s 14th place finish in the boys varsity event with a 19:26.35 clocking over the 5,000-meter course that included 44 runners. In the girls varsity race Livia Knecht was 22nd in 25:46.27 and Lillian Boyko 31st in 28:18.69 in a field of 35 runners.
Deuel won the boys team title with 13 points, Northwestern had 35, Aberdeen Roncalli 46, Great Plains Lutheran 55, and Webster Area 86. Roncalli took the girls team crown with 22 points, followed by Milbank at 26, Warner 38, and Deuel 53.
Two girls participated in the girls JV race with 18 runners on the 4,000-meter course. Grace Folkman was 16th in 24:41.44 and Avery Leonard 17th in 26:16.25. Milbank was the only school to field a full team and scored 10 points.
Britton-Hecla had six boys compete in the 3,000-meter junior high event, placing fourth as a team in the six-team field. Jace Stelzer was 16th in 12:50.26 in the 48-runner field, Hezekiah O’Brien 17th in 12:52.40, Reeve Knecht 25th in 13:48.83, Tripp Hagen 41st in 15:52.89, Mark Fokman 46th in 17:30.10, and Leo Schuller 47th in 17:30.82.
Aberdeen Central won the junior high boys title with 17 points, followed by Sisseton at 38, Aberdeen Roncalli 56, Britton-Hecla 69, Webster Area 82, and Florence-Henry 100.
O’Brien placed 15th in a 63-runner field in the Deuel Invite with a time of 18:57.37 and Knecht was 19th in the girls race with 37 runners with a 22:55.21 effort. In the girls 3,000-meter JV race with 31 runners Folkman was 20th in 15:20.99 and Leonard 29th in 17:32.49.
Six boys placed fourth as a team in the 3,000-meter junior high event with 45 runners. Stelzer was fourth in 12:26.30, O’Brien eighth in 12:36.01, Knecht 19th in 13:36.94, Hagen 28th in 14:08.06, Schuller 36th in 15:41.74, and Folkman 39th in 16:31.41.
Deuel won the boys varsity team title with 25 points, followed by Sioux Valley at 68, Sisseton 70, Deubrook Area 77, Aberdeen Roncalli 84, Clark-Willow Lake 91, Great Plains Lutheran 92, Castlewood 114, De Smet 124, and Webster Area 135.
Roncalli took the girls varsity crown with 17 points and CWL and Deuel tied for second at 32. Sioux Valley was the girls JV winner with 12 and CWL 24. In the boys junior high race Sisseton won the team title with 20 points, Sioux Valley 22, Roncalli 28, Britton-Hecla 29, Tri-State 50, Florence-Henry 62, and Deuel 69.
