Albert Lea eighth-grader Chrissy Monson is beginning to make a habit of placing her name near the top at cross country meets.

After placing second at the Half Moon meet in Wells Monson added a first place finish Tuesday in Austin, coming in with a time of 16:05 in the 4-kilometer race. Her nearest competitor was 45 seconds behind her.

Monson’s finish and a fourth place finish from Alyssa Sager powered the Tigers to second place overall. Owatonna won the meet with a team time of 1:27:48 while Albert Lea was less than two minutes back at 1:29:30 in the four-team field.

“What was fun to watch was that all the girls decreased their time from the meet in Wells last Friday,” Tigers coach Jim Haney said. “They felt good about the progress they made.”

It was the highest a girls team has finished since Haney has been head coach.

On the boys side, Ethan Marquardt took home second place with a time of 17:04 in the 5-K event, just 24 seconds behind first place finisher Jacob Bastyr of Owatonna.

The Tigers finished third out four teams.

The Huskies powered their way to the win, placing six runners in the top 10 of the meet.

“We are improving and I look forward to continued improvement during the season,” Haney said. “Third place was not bad but we still need to improve.”

Albert Lea will have plenty of time to better its times as it does not have another meet for nine days. The Tigers’ next meet is Sept. 5 against Faribault.