AUSTIN &045; Ethan Marquardt did something that hadn&8217;t been done by an Albert Lea cross country runner in six years &045; he won a race. The Tiger junior won the Austin Invite by 11 seconds completing the course in 17:03.

Albert Lea got a second top 10 finish from Levi Budd who came in eighth with a time of 18:16.

&8220;Ethan sent a message to the Big Nine teams that he is a force to be dealt with as he dominated the varsity race,&8221; Albert Lea head coach Jim Haney said. &8220;Ethan is a powerful runner who put on many miles over the summer, and I was very happy for him as all of his hard work has paid off. I will expect that barring injury he will challenge the best runners in south Minnesota.&8221;

Haney was impressed seeing Marquardt and Budd run together through much of the race and continued to push one another.

Steve Senholtz finished 19th in a time of 19:04, Chris Dorman was 30th in 20:11, Judd Bonnerup took 33rd in 20:34 and Mitch Wenum took 40th in 21:42.

The Tigers finished the meet third out of four teams on the boys&8217; side while the girls also finished third behind Rochester John Marshall and Owatonna.

Mallory King and Abby Randall led the Tiger girls&8217; team with a seventh and eighth place finish, respectively. King finished in 17:51 while Randall was just one second behind her.

Alyssa Sager took 16th with a mark of 18:21 while Lauren Klick and Elizabeth Burnett were 29th and 30th.

&8220;Mallory, Abby, Alicia and Alyssa ran a great race,&8221; Haney said. &8220;They ran together for most of the race. It was great to see the girls packing up and competing. I think the way they finished the race will make them better runners.&8221;

The Tigers are off until Sept. 8 when they will run in Faribault.