Last Tuesday, the Ellsworth Junior-Senior High School cross country teams competed at the Lyons Invitational. It was a great day to run, and we competed against three other schools that had enough runners to qualify as teams on the boys varsity side. All four of these teams made a strong showing, and it seemed that each of our runners were competing right around these other team runners the entire race, which allowed us to basically compete head to head with these teams, and in final overall team scoring, the boys’ varsity team finished first, with 43 points, ahead of Sterling, 49 points; TMP, 54 points, and Pratt-Skyline, 64 points. Braden Schulte and Skyline runner Jackson Wallace traded the lead during the first mile and half, before being challenged by Seth Flax from Ness City. Braden continues to lead the team, finishing his final race at Lyons in third place, his highest career placing in a varsity race to date. Colton Bettenbrock finished in a strong fifth place, a good showing in his first 5K at Lyons. Jonathan Spachek, Byron Johnson and Grady Mueller all finished their races strong, holding position or making some crucial passes in the last half mile to solidify the team championship. Kirsten Meier finished in the top half of the field, and continues to close in on her career best time, and in the next 2-3 weeks will likely record that personal best. The Junior High runners continue to show progress, with Madison Newell and Trenton Holmes leading the group, each medaling in their final 2 mile competition at Lyons. Next year it’ll be the high school 5K for them. All around, it was a great meet 7-12, with EJSHS bringing home medals, as well as times that were close to personal bests across the board. Definitely a great way to approach the latter part of our season, with our home meet Tuesday, the 7-12 NCAA League meet at a one-year-only venue of Minneapolis Golf Course next Tuesday, Oct. 13, and High School Regionals at Norton, Oct. 24.

Individual results were:

Seventh grade girls

One mile race, 16 total runners

• Eva Neuman, 12th place, 8:45.

Seventh grade boys

One mile race, 30 total runners

• Mikhail Meier 27th place, 9:22.

8th grade girls

Two mile race, 10 total runners

• Madison Newell, fourth place medalist, 15:24.

8th grade boys

Two mile race, 20 total runners

• Trenton Holmes, Ninth place medalist, 15:13.

• Billy Duncan, 17th place, 17:50.

• Nelson Neuman, 18th place, 17:55.

• Aidan Johnson, 19th place, 19:33.

High School Varsity

Girls 5K race, 23 total runners

• Kirsten Meier, 10th place medalist, 24:43.

Boys 5K race, 38 total runners

• Braden Schulte, third place medalist, 19:11. • Colton Bettenbrock, fifth place

• Colton Bettenbrock, fifth place medalist, 19:45.

• Jonathan Spachek, 16th place medalist, 21:18. • Byron Johnson, 18th place,

• Byron Johnson, 18th place, 21:31.

• Grady Mueller, 30th place, 23:41.