International Falls’ girls cross country team won Thursday’s invitational meet at Roseau by placing five runners among the top 13 individual finishers.
The Broncos won with the low team score of 41, followed by Warroad (58), Roseau (78), Thief River Falls (81) and West Marshall (130) rounding out the top five.
“Winning this meet really boosts our confidence and shows what we can do,” said Falls girls team captain Kelsey Eibler. “The heat was tough, but we pushed through and came out on top.”
Sophomore Sydney Raboin had the best individual finish for the Broncos by placing third on the 4,000-meter course in 16 minutes, 20 seconds. Lexi Erickson came in sixth at 17:01, followed by Amber Harms in seventh at 17:07, Amy Auran in 12th at 17:58 and Rachel Foss in 13th at 17:59 to round out the top five runners who counted in the team standings.
In the boys competition, Falls finished third as a team.
“I think we all ran very well and we all stayed together in a pack,” said Bronco boys team captain Charlie Gordon. “Once we can get our ‘pack’ up to Marco (Griffith, Falls’ top individual finisher), we will really be good.”
Thief River Falls literally ran away in first place with 20 points, followed by Roseau (67), the Falls (72), Warroad (159) and Lake of the Woods (165) in the top five.
Griffith was the only Bronco boys runner to finish in the top 10 individually when he completed the 5,000-meter course in 19:38 for 10th place.
Falls’ next four runners finished together from 14th to 17th place. They included Wyatt Ulrich (20:22), Gordon (20:46), Aaron Geiss (20:47) and Cade MacKay (20:48).
