Five days removed from getting a preview of the district course in Linn, cross country runners from Belle, Vienna and Bland made the short trek to Steelville to compete in the Steelville Invitational last Thursday.

They also got a preview of what the course will be like for the annual Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) Cross Country meet scheduled for Friday, Oct. 22 also in Steelville at their city park.

Once all five races were ran, a total of four Maries County harriers left Steelville with medals following top-20 finishes in their respective races.

In the middle school boys race at Steelville, Vienna’s Lawson Magner paced county runners with a seventh-place time of 10:44.3 followed closely by Bland’s Garret Gehlert with an eighth-place time of 10:52.6.

Other county runners in the middle school boys race included Vienna’s Ethan Rex (28th), Vienna’s Thomas Douglas (52nd), Vienna’s Alberto Esquivel (53rd) and Bland’s Kaegan Kinsey (78th).

During the middle school girl’s race, Vienna’s Larissa Magner led Maries County runners with a 27th-place time of 13:36.8 leaving her nearly :35 out of the top 20 and a medal.

Piper Marsee rounded out the top 30 with a 30th-place time of 13:44.9 to lead Bland’s Lady Bears in Steelville.

Other county runners in the middle school girls race at Steelville included Vienna’s Kaylee Bresnahan (42nd).

With Belle and Vienna playing each other that day in softball, there were no Maries County cross country runners in the varsity girls race at Steelville.

Ending the day of racing in Steelville was the varsity boys.

Belle’s duo of Baylar Smith (11th, 20:08.7) and Corey McDaniel (14th, 20:30.0) both left Steelville with medals around their respective necks.

Vienna harriers had one more meet last week competing Saturday in Mokane at the South Callaway Cross Country Invitational.

Five middle school Eagles came away with medals led by Lawson Magner’s fifth-place time of 14:07.

Rex (15th, 17:30) and Esquivel (17th, 18:00) also earned medals for the VMS Eagles.

Larissa Magner (11th, 17:57) and Bresnahan (19th, 20:44) also medals for the VMS Lady Eagles at South Callaway.

Dani Murphy led the VHS Lady Eagles with a 30th-place time of 28:39 in Mokane while Cooper Auten paced the Eagles with a 29th-place time of 22:17 in the varsity boys race.

Other Lady Eagles running at South Callaway were Ava Kloeppel (38th), Jillian Fick (43rd) and Madeleine Novak (45th).

Eagles racing along with Auten were Jackson Kilmer (47th) and Danniel Casey (49th).