The Big Lake cross country runners have been battling and struggling with heat and humidity over their past few meets.

But that changed last week at the Mississippi 8 Conference Championships at the Ponds Golf Course in St. Francis when the weather was cool and rainy.

“The kids really handled the weather well,” said Coach Todd Trutna. “It’s not easy to run fast in steady rain, but they stayed focused and kept competing.”

The varsity boys bounced back with a third place finish behind Becker and Cambridge-Isanti, led by Gavin Flavin, who took third in 16:11.4.

He was followed by Trent Erickson (ninth, 16:48), Theo Johnson (15th, 16:58) and Jack Schmidt (16th, 17:00), all earning All-Conference recognition.

“Quite unusual that you have four all-conference runners and finish in third place,” said Coach Trutna. “It shows the competitiveness at the top of our conference.”

Eli Henning finished 26th in 18:04 and earned Honorable Mention honors, while Max Baron (31st, 18:13), Eli Schaller (49th, 19:01) and Nicholas Erickson (50th, 19:01) completed the varsity squad. And the team showed its depth when the JV boys won their team title behind Evan Hitter and Avery Jarvi who finished 1-2 in 18:48 and 19:02 respectively.

For the girls, ninth-grader Shay France in her first season as a cross-country runner,  led the way with an impressive sixth-place finish in 19:46.6, earning All-Conference honors and leading the team to a seventh-place finish.

She was followed by Hazel Guldseth (36th, 21:51) who had another strong run and lowered her personal best by about 20 seconds.  

Elsie Jagusch (44th, 22:42) and Clara Devine (46th, 22:51) also set personal best times by about 10 seconds. Rounding out the varsity squad were Aubri Judge (53rd, 23:47), Ainsley McGuire (54th, 23:57), and Chloe Howe (61st, 25:05) all of whom set season’s best times.

“Though the team would have liked to have placed a bit higher,” said Coach Trutna, “their training has been going well and they are starting to peak at the right point in the season.”

The Hornets competed in the Section 5AA Championships Thursday at Apollo High School in St. Cloud, results next week.