International Falls’ boys and girls cross country teams headed to Duluth on Saturday to compete in a large-scale meet at the Swain Invitational.
Among schools in the “Class A” category, the Bronco girls placed ninth with 276 points in the 26-team field, while the boys competed against 29 teams and came in 20th with 524.
“It was a good day for everyone,” said Falls head coach Paul Hjelle. “I thought the kids competed well and gave it everything they had on a very tough course. It was a beautiful day for a meet.”
St. Cloud Cathedral, which won both the boys and girls competition, topped the girls team standings at 55, followed by The Blake School (88) and Esko (201) in the top three.
Falls’ best individual finish came from sophomore Sydney Raboin, who placed 27th in 16 minutes, 45 seconds.
The Broncos’ top-five runners who counted in the point standings finished within 1:52 of each other on the 4,000-meter course.
The next four Falls runners to finish behind Raboin included: seventh-grader Lexi Erickson, 43rd in 17:19; sophomore Amy Auran, 48th in 17:27; senior Amber Harms, 64th in 17:50; and junior Rachel Foss, 94th in 18:37.
In the boys competition, the top-three schools were St. Cloud Cathedral (80), Perham (82) and The Blake School (96).
Falls’ top individual finish came from junior Cade MacKay, who placed 76th after completing the 5,000-meter course in 18:38. Junior teammate Marco Griffith finished 4 seconds later in 80th place.
The other three Bronco boys who counted in the team standings included: senior Charlie Gordon, 112th in 19:19; sophomore Wyatt Ulrich, 123rd in 19:32; and junior Logan Veillieux, 133rd in 19:53.
