With the weather finally feeling like fall, Belle City Park played host last Tuesday afternoon to the Belle Cross Country Invitational with Bland Middle School (BMS) and Belle High School (BHS) looking to keep as many medals and team plaques in town as possible.

Bland’s Lady Bears placed sixth as a team with 137 points finishing behind Vienna (63), Union (66), Steelville (80), Rolla (91) and Bourbon (106).

Roxy DeDual was the lone medalist for the Lady Bears finishing 14th in a time of 15:10.2.

Also helping the Lady Bears place sixth as a team were Gracelyn Jarvis (21st, 15:27.7), Chesley Frey (38th, 16:48.0), Cora Langston (50th, 17:27.9) and Harper Ridenhour (58th, 18:12.7).

Liam Lewis led Bland’s Bears with a 49th-place time of 14:50.4.

Following Lewis in a Bland Bear cross country uniform were Treyton Huebner (64th, 15:33.7), Grayson Tyler (99th, 19:46.9) and Deacon Stockton (104th, 20:08.2).

With only four runners in the race, Bland was not eligible for a team score.

Finishing with 44 team points, Belle’s Lady Tigers placed second finishing behind Linn (40) and ahead of Vienna (66) and Salem (78).

Earning medals for finishing in the top 20 was the Lady Tiger trio of Skylar Stevens (7th, 23:14.6), Ellanor Kent (12th, 23:50.1) and Marianne Francis (20th, 25:50.9).

Fellow Lady Tigers helping Belle keep second-place team hardware in town were Saylor Kent (31st, 28:48.2), Allania Moore (33rd, 29:06.9), Kenadie Bailey (35th, 29:55.0) and Sedora Carroll (37th, 30:31.4).

Belle’s Tigers also kept the second-place plaque in town scoring 58 team points to finish behind Vienna’s first-place team total of 29 points.

Rounding out the varsity boys team standings were Steelville (67), New Haven (69), Harrisburg (156), Cuba (172) and Salem (83).

Leading four Tigers in the top 20 and medal position, freshman Jackson Prater posted a second-place time of 17:19.6.

Tigers joining Prater in the top 20 and the medals included Malachi Fredendall (11th, 19:24.9), Michael Felton (12th, 19:26.0) and Coltin Hazelwood (18th, 19:49.0).

Also competing in varsity action for Belle’s Tigers were Ryker Huebner (23rd, 20:30.7), Braxton Ahart (27th, 20:41.6), Miles Frey (29th, 21:01.4), David Skaggs (32nd, 21:25.5), Alden Zabel (37th, 21:52.7) and Tharon Kent (38th, 21:54.9).

Racing last night (Tuesday) in St. James, Belle and Bland will compete in the Calvary Lutheran Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 3 before running at the Hermann Invitational on Tuesday, Oct. 6.