The Southeast Valley cross country teams traveled to Webster City on last Tuesday, September 2^nd for the Lynx Invitational looking to improve their 5k times from the first meet of the year. At the conclusion of the meet, 20 of the Jaguar athletes accomplished that goal, helping all three teams to place well in the team standings. 

              While there were 17 schools competing in this meet, the team results were split out in two divisions; the purple division (large schools) and the gold division (small schools). The Varsity boys who were 7^th overall, claimed 3^rd place honors as a team in the gold division scoring 89 points. Algona was 1^st with 54 points, while class 1A ranked Manson was 2^nd with 87 points. Finishing 4^th was St. Edmond who is also ranked in class 1A that had previously beaten Southeast Valley the week before.

              Leading the Varsity boys were Lincoln Akins and Owen Nuss who ran season bests times of 18:51 and 18:58 respectively to claim 10^th and 11^th places in the gold division. Freshman August Akins was the third Jaguar to finish running a season best 19:42 (17^th) while Ethan Tucker season bet of 20:28 (24^th). Jackson Bintz rounded out the scoring for Southeast Valley finishing 27^th in a time of 20:34. Displacement runners Carver Peterson and Logan Bintz ran 20:48 (32^nd) and 23:07 (46^th) respectively.

              In the Varsity girls’ race, all five varsity runners improved their season best time from the first meet of the season. Katie Field once again led the Jaguars running 25:29 to claim 22^nd place and was followed by teammate Ruby Stimpson finishing 28^th with a time of 26:02. Freshmen Charlie Dorsey crossed the finish line with a time of 27:27 to take 33^rd, Brooke Peterson ran 27:54 (41^st) and Meia Hefley broke the 30-minute mark in a time of 29:02 (48^th).

              Leading off the night was the JV boys. Drew Dorsey (21:07, 2^nd) and Kasen Loeffler (22:34, 6^th) both ran season bests to lead the JV boys to a second-place finish in the gold division. Blaise Echevarria (23:36, 9^th) was the third runner and Oliver Riehl improved his season best to finish 15^th (25:12). Carter Ganoe was the last scorer for the Jaguars running a 25:24 which placed him 17^th.

              Also competing in the JV race for the Jaguars were Evan Kuhn (23^rd, 26:11), Carter Lloyd (26^th, 26:41) Jacob Wicklein (38^th, 29:42), Max Judson (40^th, 31:30), Mason Newell (42^nd, 23:33), Logan Urelius (45^th, 35:51), and Kaleb Klein (46^th, 36:29). Evan, Carter, Jacob, Max, Mason and Logan’s times were all improvements and season bests from the first meet of the season.

              The Jaguars will return to competing when they head to the Greene County Invitation this coming Thursday, September 11^th at Spring Lake Park in Greene County before heading to Panorama the following Thursday, September 18^th.