The Albert Lea boys’ and girls’ cross country teams traveled to Owatonna Thursday night for the Section 1AA meet.

Although both teams turned in some of their best times of the year, only one Tigers runner came within just one place of reaching the state meet.

The boys’ team finished the meet in seventh place out of 16 with junior Sonny Ortega-Roselli coming in 15th place (16:33.5), missing a trip to the state meet by seven seconds. Ortega-Roselli was followed closely by seniors Grant Herfindahl (32nd, 17:04.4) and JV Moreno (35th, 17:11.5).

“These young men have provided tremendous leadership to the program and they will be sorely missed,” said head coach Jim Haney. “Both runners have been running varsity for me for a long time; they have put the time and effort in to be great runners and it showed today. I am so proud to say that Grant and JV were part of Albert Lea cross country.”

Rounding out the top five for the boys’ team were sophomores Aaron Bauers (52nd, 17:26.9) and Logan Barr (72nd, 17:44.0)

The girls’ team was once again led by sophomore Abbie Thompson, who came in 69th place with a time of 21:13.7. Sophomore Jaiden Venem was close behind, finishing with a time of 22:04.5 in 88th place.

Despite the 16th place finish as a team, Haney is optimistic about the future of the program.

“All five of the girls that scored for the varsity were under 23 minutes and that was the fastest times of the season,” he said. “The girls all will be back and they have a goal to continue to improve, and I know they will as they will train over the summer… All of these girls are great young ladies and it has been a pleasure working with them and I look forward to watching them to continue to improve.”

The final three scorers for the Tigers were freshman Karmie Ponciano (94th, 22:23.0), and eighth-graders Kristina Espinosa (96th, 22:24.5) and Jai Maligaya (102nd, 22:53.7).