The Big Lake Cross-country teams opened the official season with their home invitational last Tuesday against Monticello, Rogers and St. Cloud Tech., and it was a good time for Coach Todd Trutna to observe his team’s performance.

In the boys varsity, All-State runners Owen Layton and Jack Leuer ran as expected, outdistancing the field to place 1-2 in 17:04 and 17:12.2 respectively.

A much-improved Gavin Flavin finished seventh in 18:19.1 to claim the third spot on the team.

“Gavin has made a big jump from last year and is going to surprise some people this year,” said Trutna.

Gavin Vold also had a big day, running more than three minutes faster than last year at this meet to finish 16th.  Theo Johnson was 18th, David Guyse 19th and Trent Erickson at 26th rounded out the rest of the top seven. 

For the varsity girls, Emilee Doperalski was the top Hornet finisher in fourth in 23:43.1, with Campbell Slattery seventh in 25:18.2. The three other finishers for the team were Brynn Scheer in 11th, Alayna Boe in 12th and Raina White in 14th.

“The team was missing a couple runners in Erin Kjellberg and Rylie Ostrom,” said Trutna.  “Getting those two back will help to add some depth and help this team to continue to improve.” 

The younger runners also performed well, and it looks like there are more Laytons on the horizon. Greta Layton ran away from the field in the junior high girls race to win in 7:48.1. Her closest competition came from Mady Anderson from Rogers who was almost a minute behind.

Judd Layton did the same in the junior high boys race, winning in 6:52.5 to highlight an outstanding team effort to take the title. Big Lake finished 1-2 3-5-6. The other runners in the top five were Max Baron, Eli Henning, Logan Phillips and Dallas Kopp, with Wyatt Winslow and Peter Mattison a few steps behind.

The Hornets compete in an invitational today (Saturday) at a site to be determined. They run in the Annandale Invitational Tuesday at Whispering Pines Golf Course starting at 4:15 p.m.