In his third meet at Brooktree Golf Course this year, Jackson Goodell posted his fastest time for a return trip to state.

The Albert Lea junior cross country runner’s time has improved each time he competed at the Owatonna venue.

At the Ev Berg Invitational on Oct. 2, Goodell took third place with a time of 16:26.8, and he was the Big Nine Conference champ on Oct. 14 with a time of 16:17.1

Goodell led the boys’ team to an 11th-place finish in a field of 16 teams on Thursday by shaving 7.2 seconds from his best race to take second place with a time of 16:09.9 at the Section 1AA meet.

“Jackson had an outstanding race as he has been so consistent during the season,” said Albert Lea coach Jim Haney. “He started his big push in the last mile and defeated all runners with the exception of a runner from Farmington.”

Justin Hyytinen won the race by 6.6 seconds, and Rochester Century’s Seth Massot followed Goodell by 3.8 seconds.

The top five places for each team were added up for the final team score. Other runners who contributed to the Tigers’ score were Caleb Troe, Jay Skaar, Nikk Christianson and Tyler Anderson.

Troe took 42nd place with a time of 17:28.6. Jay Skaar finished 9.5 seconds behind Troe in 56th place. Christianson took 81st place, and Anderson was 87th.

“The rest of the boys’ team did a great job,” Haney said. “With continued running and effort, I look forward to great things happening next year.”

Last year, Goodell qualified for state where he took 92nd place out of 174 runners.

 

Albert Lea girls’ team takes 8th place

The Albert Lea girls’ team finished in the top half of the field with a score of 209 to edge ninth-place Northfield by four points.

On the same course at the conference meet, Northfield defeated the Tigers by five points.

“The girls should feel proud of the efforts and improvements they made throughout the season,” Haney said.

The Tigers were led by Haley Harms, who took 31st place with a time of 16:03.7. Emily Ortiz followed 15.4 seconds behind Harms in 35th place, and Hanna Kingstrom cracked the top 40 with a time of 16:22.4. Autumn Muilenburg took 45th place and Breanna Himmerich rounded out the scoring in 59th place.

“The girls had a great race as they did what they’ve been doing all year long, which is running in a pack and running consistent fast times,” Haney said. “I was so proud of how the girls were within 40 seconds of each other.”