The Greene County Coed Cross-Country Invitational was held Saturday morning on the grounds of the middle school building in Jefferson. The relatively flat course covered nearly every bit of grass on school property.

The Rams won the boys’ team title and junior Noah Hinote was the individual winner with a late kick on the Linduska Field track to reach the finish line before anyone else. He was timed in 19:34 for the five kilometers (3.1 miles). The Greene County boys topped the other three teams with 29 points. IKM-Manning had 42 with 53 from Southeast Valley (Gowrie), and 109 from West Central Valley (Stuart).

Greene County’s girls did not have enough runners for a team score. The team title for girls went to IKM-Manning with 26 followed by WCV 37, and SEV 57..

Hinote had plenty of help from his teammates with the next four Rams placing third, fourth, tenth, and eleventh. Brady Carstensen was third in 19:48, followed by fourth place finisher Gavyn Winters in 19:57, and Carter Hinote in tenth in 21:06. Those four are all medal winners for finishing in the top 10. Kolby Angell was eleventh in 21:14. There were 37 runners in the race.

The top female runner for Greene County was Ava Minnehan who was fifth in 25:20 and Becca Anderson was sixth in 25:40. Evelyn Snyder was tenth in 29:22 and Leah McCormick placed 23rd among 24 runners in 36:05. Minnehan, Anderson, and Snyder each medaled.

Coach Jeff Lamoureux said he was very happy with how the Rams ran. “We’ll be on this same course for the conference meet next month, so we’ll have some experience running here. This was just the third time in my seven years as head coach we’ve been able to host a meet.” Lamoureux added Hinote is one of the few Rams in recent seasons to win an individual title.

The Panorama Invitational on Sept. 14 is next for the Rams on a new course starting and finishing in Panora at Panorama high school.