The very large and very difficult Gilbert Cross-County Invitational held yesterday served as the season opener for runners from Greene County High School, including those from Paton-Churdan, who participate under an athletic sharing agreement. Some of the difficulty came from the course, which is Iowa State University’s home course on the southwest side of Ames. Another part came from the competition, which mainly was from bigger schools, as the Rams were in the largest of two divisions.

On the girls’ side, the Rams were tenth among 12 teams with 233 points. Kuemper Catholic (Carroll) and Boone trailed Greene County. North Polk (Alleman) won the team title with Dallas Center-Grimes second and Gilbert third.

For the boys, Greene County was last among 13 teams with 355 points. The Rams were closest to PCM (Monroe) and Des Moines North. Both of those teams had 267 points. Gilbert scored just 16 points to win the boys’ team title.

Junior Kassie Lamoureux led Greene County girls with a 33rd place finish in 24:06 for the five kilometers (3.1 miles) with Conner Allender 40th in 24:50. Conner Bruce led the Rams on the boys’ side with a 61st place finish in 21:26 and Logan Woodruff was 66th in 21:41.