RUNNERS HEADING DOWN HOME STRETCH OF SEASON

    The Britton-Hecla cross country team competed in a pair of meets during the past week and is heading down the home stretch of its season.
    Coach Stephanie Symens’ squad ran in the Aberdeen Roncalli Invitational on Thursday and the Deuel Invitational on Monday.  This week the local runners will compete at Groton on Monday and will wrap up regular season meets at Sisseton on Oct. 3.  The Eastern Coteau Conference meet is Oct. 7, the Northeast Conference meet Oct. 10, and Region 1A is Oct. 16.
    “Our athletes continue to get stronger as the season progresses,” said Symens.  “That’s exactly what I want them to do. We ran a new course in Aberdeen and it turned out to be a really nice course to run on. Monday we went to Clear Lake and all ran really good times for the challenging course that it was.”
    Livia Knecht led Britton-Hecla in the girls varsity division in both meets, placing 18th at Roncalli (26:07.04) in a 42-runner field, and 26th among 48 runners at Deuel (23:36.54).  Jeris Stark was 19th at Roncalli (26:15.17) and 28th at Deuel (23:41.55).
    In the boys varsity division Joseph O’Brien was 34th among 54 runners at Roncalli (23:52.41) and 41st in a 61-runner field at Deuel (21:37.59).
    Britton-Hecla’s girls junior varsity runners were able to compete as a team for the first time at Deuel.  Sisseton won the JV team title over the 3K course with 26 points, followed by Florence-Henry 36, Estelline-Hendricks 49, De Smet 49, Deubrook Area 82, and Britton-Hecla 84.
    Mia  Kilker led the local JV runners with a 21st place finish (14:44.55) among 46 runners.  Avery Leonard was 27th (15:00.92), Lillian Boyko 28th (15:04.96), and Ceci Anderson 44th (16:56.70).  Anderson was 26th at Roncalli (18:32.59) in the JV division.  Boyko was 30th (11:34.35), and Leonard 32nd (11:37.13) in the junior high division at Roncalli.
    Deuel won both varsity team titles at the Roncalli meet.  Britton-Hecla does not have enough runners to compete for team honors.
    In the boys bracket Deuel had eight points, Great Plains Lutheran 18, Aberdeen Central 25, Florence-Henry 50, Webster Area 58, Tri-State 68, Clark-Willow Lake 73, and Hitchcock-Tulare 89.
    In the girls division Deuel had 12 points, Clark-Willow Lake 16, Aberdeen Roncalli 33, Great Plains Lutheran 34, Florence-Henry 51, Aberdeen Central 52, and Webster Area 66.
    Deuel also won the boys team crown at its own invitational with 24 points, Great Plains Lutheran 34, Sioux Valley 38, Arlington 72, Estelline-Hendricks79, De Smet 110, Tri-State 113, and Clark-Willow Lake 134.
    Sioux Valley took the girls title with 28 points, Clark Willow Lake had 35, Arlington 42, Deuel 42, and Redfield 91.