The ADM girls and boys cross country teams were the first teams to usher in the second full week in September on Monday running in the Ballard XC Invitational.

Both ADM squads battled it out in a 22 team field that included 7 different Raccoon River Conference teams including the Tigers. In a very tough and competitive field both squads would hang tough with the girls team earning 15th place and the boys squad earning 21st place.

The boys squad ran tough but would have a rough go of it earning 21st place with a point total of 589. The boys squad did show their depth and range as the top two for the Tigers were senior Brady Meier with a team best time of 20:48 and freshmen Braeden Hegarty right behind him with a finishing time of 20:54. Those two Tiger runners earned 108th and 110th places respectively out of 151 total participants.

The Lady Tigers also took it to the Ballard Invitational running tough and finishing 15th as a team with a total of 422 points. Like a broken record the leader for the Lady Tigers in the meet was sophomore standout Sadie Juergens just missing out on the top 30 placing 31st with her time of 22:31. Another solid performance from Juergens placing 31st or better in the last three meets; placing 27th in the Urbandale Invitational, 8th at the Winterset Cross Country Invitational just over a week ago, followed up by Mondays 31st place performance.

Both Tiger squads will have a week off until they start back up again next Monday in the comforts of home. They will be running against a much smaller field facing off against conference opponents Ballard and Carlisle for the second meet in a row while also welcoming in Interstate-35, Norwalk, Saydel, Van Meter, and WCV to Hillcrest Country Club in Adel. The meet will kick off starting at 4:30 pm.