Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn cross country runners entered the home stretch of the regular season on Sept. 27, when they participated in the Alta-Aurelia Invitational at Alta Golf and Country Club.

The Hawks again competed against quality competition from area teams and continued to show improvement in their times compared to early-season performances.

Leading the Hawk girls was Madison Otto, who finished 12th with a time of 22:29. Kamryn Ebel finished 35th (25:34), Gracie Knobloch was 45th (27:35), and Ashleigh Vermeer (28:22) and Juliana Pasillas (28:23) were 49th and 50th, respectively.

In the girls' team standings, Cherokee and Sibley-Ocheyedan continued their head-to-head battle, with the Braves winning by the narrowest of margins, 42-43. Manson Northwest Webster was the third-place team with 104 points, followed by Alta-Aurelia 110, Hinton 115, Sioux Central 129, H-M-S 180 and Lawton-Bronson 192.

H-M-S's boys placed ninth out of 11 varsity teams. Sioux Central was the first-place team with 82 points, while MMCRU and West Monona were right behind in second and third with 86 and 90 points. Sibley-Ocheyedan was fourth with 110 points. The other competing teams were Cherokee and Manson Northwest Webster 116, Hinton 188, Alta-Aurelia 192, H-M-S 196, South O'Brien 231 and OABCIG 258.

MIKE PETERSEN/SENTINEL-NEWS

H-M-S runner Blaine Finster recorded a 5K time of 23:48 during the boys' varsity race at the meet hosted by Alta-Aurelia.

Individual results for H-M-S were Bryce Dodge, 26th, 20:34; George Vargas, 32nd, 21:08; Aiden Bush, 43rd, 21:52; Aiden Jensen, 45th, 22:12; Blaine Finster, 66th, 23:48; and Gavin Faulkner, 72nd, 25:22.

Ryan Grotluschen's time of 24:06 was good for 10th place in the boys' JV race.

The Hawks are scheduled to compete in a meet hosted by George-LR/CL on Oct. 7 at the Otter Valley course near George. This year's War Eagle Conference cross country meet will be held on Oct. 11 at the Landsmeer course in Orange City.