During Thursday’s Belle Invitational Cross Country Meet at Belle City Park, runners from Bland, Belle and Vienna were looking to keep as many medals and pieces of hardware in Maries County as possible.

After the final runner crossed the finish line, Both Belle’s Tigers and Lady Tigers claimed second-place hardware while 23 county harriers left Belle City Park with medals for their top-20 finishes in their respective races.

Middle School boys action started the day of racing in Belle with four runners from Bland and Vienna posting top-20 finishes.

Bland’s Jackson Prater defended his home course with a winning time of 11:47.5 followed in second place by Vienna’s Paxten Jeremy with a time of 12:04.3.

Coltin Hazelwood was the next medalist for the Bears with a seventh-place time of 12:28.5

Vienna’s Tyler Callahan was the final medalist for Maries County with an 18th-place time of 12:56.4.

In the team standings, Vienna was third with 125 points behind St. James (43) and Rolla (52) while Bland placed fifth with 146 points.

Additional Eagles helping Vienna to their third-place team finish were Eli Messersmith (24th, 13:09.5), Alex Wieberg (30th, 13:47.3), Drew Crum (72nd, 15:06.3), Draymen Messersmith (84th, 15:34.8) and David Martin (111th, 17:07.0).

Bears also contributing to Bland’s fifth-place team finish were Alden Zabel (38th, 14:01.1), Weston Sadler (57th, 14:40.4), Dakota Stockton (68th, 15:00.0), Trenton Huebner (86th, 15:41.3), Barrett Zumwalt (91st, 16:08.1), Ryker Huebner (112th, 17:07.0) and Braxton Elrod (129th, 19:18.1).

In the middle school girls race, four county runners also posted top-20 times good for medals led by Bland’s Ava Prater with her seventh-place time of 14:43.2.

Vienna was led by Sophia Neubert’s 10th-place time of 14:54.0.

Additional medal earners included Bland’s Skylar Stevens (11th, 14:59.7) and Vienna’s Emerson Jeremy (13th, 15:08.4).

Vienna placed fifth in the middle school girls team standings with 120 points while Bland did not have five runners to be able to post a team score.

Also helping VMS’ Lady Eagles place fifth as a team were Kaitlyn Carpenter (45th, 17:53.7), Elise Kilmer (63rd, 19:12.4) and Riley McKinnon (71st, 20:38.1).

Racing for Bland along with Prater and Stevens were Marianne Francis (24th, 16:12.8) and Cora Langston (68th, 20:01.4).

Vienna’s Eagles and Belle’s Tigers kept both pieces of team hardware in the county.

Vienna topped the varsity boys team standings with 37 points followed closely by Belle’s second-place total of 43 points.

Among the top 20 varsity boys, half of them were Maries County runners led by Vienna’s Hunter Schwartze who placed second to Salem’s Alex Diehl in a time of 18:08.1.

Other Maries County medalists from Belle include Belle’s Garrett Gehlert (5th, 18:32.5), Vienna’s Cooper Auten (6th, 19:04.3), Vienna’s Bryce Ewers (8th, 19:41.4), Belle’s Barrett Finnegan (11th, 20:16.7), Belle’s Miles Frey (12th, 20:19.1), Vienna’s Thomas Douglas (17th, 21:10.6) and Vienna’s Tyler Hallahan (19th, 21:16.3).

Other Maries County finishers in the varsity boys race included Belle’s Malachi Fredendall (22nd, 21:31.1), Belle’s Karsin Seifert (30th, 22:27.5), Vienna’s Ethan Rex (47th, 23:55.0) and Vienna’s Dalton Timm (48th, 24:44.8).

Varsity girls action was tight with the top three teams separated by three points.

Calvary Lutheran (57) edged out the host Lady Tigers (58) atop the team standings followed by third-place Linn with 60 points.

Vienna also placed seventh as a team with 144 points.

Five Maries County harriers claimed medals with their top-20 finishes in the varsity girls race led by Belle’s Nolie Finnegan with a third-place time of 21:55.5.

Other county medalists in the varsity girls race included Belle’s Tajel McDaniel (11th, 24:18.8), Belle’s Ellanor Kent (16th, 25:14.8), Vienna’s Marissa Hollis (17th, 25:19.6) and Belle’s Saylor Kent (19th, (25:25.5).

Additional Maries County finishers in the varsity girls race included Vienna’s Kaylee Bresnahan (22nd, 25:48.9), Belle’s Kenadie Bailey (26th, 26:38.2), Belle’s Allania Moore (40th, 30:04.9), Vienna’s Ava Kloeppel (43rd, 30:15.7), Vienna’s Naomi Clark (44th, 31:44.7), Belle’s Lorraine Smith (48th, 32:46.5) and Vienna’s Jezabel Bordonaba (50th, 34:25.7).