By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton boys' cross country team came up one point short of winning a team championship in Slayton Tuesday.
Competing at the Murray County Central Invitational, H-BC-E-E scored 52 points, finishing one point behind Jackson County Central (51) in the final standings.
Luverne (58 points), Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin (84), Martin County West (132), Adrian (134) and Worthington (141) round out the field.
Tyler Bush and Zach Hadler set the stage for victory by placing second and fourth individually with respective 17:18 and 17:33 efforts.
Greg Van Batavia, Todd Alberty and Kale Wiertzema placed 13th, 14th and 19th with respective 18:24, 18:42 and 18:52 times to contribute to H-BC-E-E's team tally.
H-BC-E-E also fielded a complete boysÕ junior varsity team that placed second to Luverne at the meet.
Derek Haak and Kerry Fink paced the Patriots by placing fifth and ninth in 15:59 and 16:13.
Devin DeBoer (15th in 16:58), John Sandbulte (17th in 17:01) and Michael Bos (27th in 17:32) padded the team score. Jared Drenth and Justin Hinks placed 30th and 42nd in 17:52 and 22:00 without influencing the scoring.
Mya Mann and Erika Fransen placed first and second in the girls' junior varsity race with respective 19:06 and 19:11 times.
Adam Fink and Grant Hoogendoorn finished third and 12th with 6:40 and 7:44 efforts in the boys' junior high race. Rayne Sandoval placed 15th in 7:44 in the girls' junior high run.
H-BC-E-E will run at the Cardinal Autumn Invitational in Adrian Oct. 3.