International Falls’ girls cross country team won a meet for the second time this week by placing first Thursday at the Eveleth Lions Invitational.

The Broncos finished 30 points ahead of their nearest competition with the top team score of 57, followed by Pequot Lakes (87), South Ridge (94), Cook County and Ely (153) rounding out the top five out of 10 teams.

“The work that some of our girls did this summer is really showing,” said Falls head coach Paul Hjelle. “Lexi (Erickson) and Sydney (Raboin) put on a lot of miles, which has really helped. If we can get our No. 3-5 runners inside of 50 seconds of them, we will be a solid team.”

Out of the meet’s 101 girls in the varsity race, Erickson finished second on the 4,000-meter course in 15:49 and Raboin placed fourth in 16:16.

The three other Bronco runners who counted for the team standings included: Amber Harms, 12th in 17:23; Amy Auran, 15th in 17:33; and Rachel Foss, 24th in 18:03.

“The course was really hilly, but we all ran good,” Erickson said. “I’m proud of the team because we didn’t have all eight runners. The weather was perfect, but it was a little windy.”

Shelby Wolden and Katie West, who competed Monday when the Broncos won the Warroad Invitational, both didn’t run Thursday.

 

Bronco boys fifth

In the boys competition, which is typically run on a 5,000-meter course, the times reflected Thursday’s race being held over close to 6,000 meters as the Falls placed fifth out of 14 teams.

Proctor finished first at 99, followed by Virginia (104), Duluth Marshall (113), Pequot Lakes (113) and the Falls (148) filling out the top five.

Hjelle said the Bronco boys are also running better.

“We will have a lot of them battling for the top-seven spots come Section time,” he said.

Falls’ best individual finish out of 160 runners came from senior Marco Griffith, who placed 13th in 22:59.

“We had a good race (Thursday) with a twist in the race causing us to run an extra kilometer,” Griffith said. “It really made us push ourselves to run a race we weren’t prepared for, and I am proud of how we performed.”

The four other Bronco boys who counted toward the team standings included: Logan Veillieux, 21st in 23:31; Wyatt Ulrich, 27th in 23:43; Cade MacKay, 32nd in 24:03; and Cole Tatsak, 55th in 25:02.