Greene County began the high school cross-country season on Thursday at the West Central Valley Co-ed Invitational hosted at the middle school in Redfield. Coach Jeff Lamoureux’s boys’ placed fifth among seven teams and the girls were also fifth in a field of seven.

Coach Lamoureux told Raccoon Valley Radio he was pleased about several things including Olivia Shannon finishing eighth individually, and the girls having enough runners for a team score. In addition, he noted the boys were just one point from third place.

Kuemper Catholic won both team races. The Knights had 39 boys’ points with 49 by Interstate 35 (Truro), 98 for Nodaway Valley, 100 for both Ankeny Christian Academy and the Rams, but ACA broke the tie with a better finish by the number six runner. Saydel (Des Moines) had 139 and Southwest Valley (Corning) 192.

The Knights had 55 girls’ points, followed by 76 for I-35, 80 by West Central Valley, 101 from Saydel, 109 for the Rams, 110 from ACA, and CAM (Anita) had 128.

Shannon covered the five kilometers (3.1 miles) in 24:07 for eighth. The other Rams and their placings were Ava Minnehan, 19th, 26:49; Autumn Stevens, 27th, 28:12; Ava Jablonski, 36th, 29:18; and Leah McCormick, 51st, 35:17.

Greene County’s boys were led by Noah Hinote, who ran 19:41 for the five K, good for 12th place. Next for the Rams was Gavyn Winters, 15th, 19:55; Ethan Frederick, 23rd, 20:43; Kolby Angell, 24th, 20:46, and Carter Hinote, 39th, 22:39.

Next up for Greene County is their own coed meet at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Jefferson Community Golf Course.