The Southeast Valley cross country teams took advantage of some cooler early September weather to show some dramatic improvements in their second cross country meet of the season at Webster City on Tuesday, September 3^rd. Fourteen of the seventeen athletes competing improved their time from their first meet in Gowrie just five days earlier.

              Junior Lincoln Akins edged teammate Owen Nuss at the finish to lead the Jaguars in the boys’ race. Lincoln (18^th) ran a season best 19:53 while Owen (19^th) ran a season best 19:54. Ethan Tucker (29^th) also improved his time for the season with a 20:32. Drew Dorsey (37^th, 21:21), Grant Farnham (46^th, 22:40) and Logan Bintz (47^th, 22:46) were the other four scorers for Southeast Valley.

              The five top boys combined for a team score of 6^th place in the nine-team gold division with 149 points. 3A Algona won the gold division with 49 points while St. Edmond was 2^nd with 67 and Manson NW was third with 94.

              The JV boys finished 3^rd in the gold division JV race with 74 points. Algona won the JV division as well with a perfect 15 points, followed by Roland Story. Carver Peterson was the top JV runner for Southeast Valley finishing 8^th overall in 23:26. Oliver Riehl (11^th, 24:26), Carter Ganoe (13^th, 24:56) and Kayden Showers (19^th, 26:21) along with Carver improved their 5k best on the season while Ben Wanat (29^th, 29:22) was only 5 seconds short of his season PR.

              In the girls’ race, the Jaguars finished with four more season PR times. Katie Field (28^th, 25:31) was the first finisher for the Jaguars, followed by Autumn Jones-Popp (33^rd, 26:37). Meia Hefley (41^st) and Hailey Rees (43^rd) ran side by side to push each other to their season best times running 28:17 and 28:27 respectively. Freshman Amelia Christensen (53^rd, 36:45) was also just short of her time on Thursday by eight seconds.

              The girls finished 8^th overall with 186 points. Class 2A ranked Roland Story won the meet with an impressive 37 points followed by St. Edmond with 49 points and Hampton Dumont-CAL with 104.

              The Jaguars will compete again this Thursday, September 12^th in Jefferson followed by the following Thursday, September 19^th in Panora.