On Oct. 10, the Mound Westonka cross country team competed in their seventh meet, the “Jordan Invitational.” The team celebrated perfect running weather, two team wins, one individual win and the five seniors who ran their final regular season meet. Those seniors are Brandon Knock, Cassie Nemecek, Charlie Paul, Christian Jordan and Sierra Jerome.

The varsity boys team had a good day, placing sixth out of 14 teams. Senior Charlie Paul led the boys, placing 15th with a time of 18:00. Following were juniors Isaac Hays (18:13) and Andrew Finley (18:37), senior Brandon Knock (18:53), sophomore Luke Sunnarborg (19:05) and ninth graders Owen Trost (19:07) and Drew Carlson (19:35), all having fast and good runs.

The varsity girls team did an amazing job, taking fourth out of 14 teams. Ninth grader Sophia Engesser got things started for the girls, placing 10th (20:39). Following close behind was ninth grader Anna Regenold in 13th (20:45) and junior Audrey Kirscht in 17th (20:58). Sophomore Emma Andrev (22:02), senior Cassie Nemecek (22:08), junior Brooke Garlock (22:11) and seventh grader Lydia Engesser (22:27) all added to the team’s success.

The junior varsity boys dominated the meet, winning first place with impressive performances all around. Eighth grader Jacob Chilson placed second (19:38) with sophomore Gavin Thelen in fourth (20:00), junior Miles Lund in fifth (20:09), ninth grader Brendan Rashleger in seventh (20:16) and eighth grader Gabriel Lundgren in 19th (21:04). Completing the strong team were Jensen Blackstad, Reece Blackstad, Noah Huesmann, Christian Jordan, August Lang and Henry Ruegemer.

The junior varsity girls team did not have enough members to be scored as a team but had three runners each finish one second behind each other. Eighth grader Vayla Jerome placed eighth  (23:50), eighth grader Elise Hays placed ninth (23:51), junior Claire Rashleger finished 11th (23:52) and senior Sierra Jerome (27:33).

The celebration continued with the middle school boys taking first place. The top 15 were all eighth graders, starting with Rayne Shaffer taking third place (9:58), Brody Olson in fifth (10:02), Griffin Lund in sixth (10:03.1), Bronx Cupp in seventh (10:03.4), Trigg Carlson in 11th (10:18), Elias Ottenbreit in 14th (10:29) and Bennett Courneya in 15th (10:30). Aidan Huesmann, Tryg Decker, Kellen Mueller, Daniel Van Edeskuty and Mason Velsor also contributed to the team’s first-place win.

The middle school girls made themselves known, with seventh grader Hadley Hoag taking first place with a time of 10:35 and eighth grader Eva Savstrom placing 12th (11:34). Jennifer DeMars, Genevieve Fosler, Emme Gustafson, Lillian Lundgren, Madison Nelson and Jo Jo Schwartz also made great contributions to their team.

The team’s next meet will be the conference meet held on Oct. 17 at Lake Rebecca Park in Delano, followed by the Section 6AA Meet for the varsity teams on Oct. 26.