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Top Albert Lea girls members finish in 4th, 6th place

After a one-day delay due to extreme heat, the Albert Lea boys and girls cross country teams hosted three other teams Wednesday night at the September home meet. 

The boys team came away with a first-place finish with senior Gavin Hanke taking home medalist honors with a time of 16:47.34. 

Freshman Ty Stout was not far behind Hanke, finishing in third place with a time of 17:56.97. Junior Isaiah McGaffey came in fifth overall with a time of 19:19.69. 

Also scoring for the Tigers was senior Pacey Brekke in sixth place with a time of 18:24.16 and senior Luke Wangsness in eighth place with a time of 18:45.97. 

Albert Lea finished with a team score of 23, 30 points ahead of the second place team, Red Wing. 

“The boys ran with a determined purpose of competing at a high level,” said head coach Jim Haney. “The top five runners scored a team score of 23 points, which is very strong and the boys should be proud of how they were able to run today.”

The girls team did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score, but still put up some good times nonetheless. Senior Jai Maligaya led the way coming in fourth place overall with a time of 22:07.25. 

Eighth grader Elle Schulz was the second best finisher for the Tigers, coming in sixth place with a time of 22:23.11. Sophomore Mya Hanke finished about one minute later in seventh place with a time of 23:26.05. 

“I was impressed by the way the three girls were able to pack up and have a great race,” Haney said. “The coaching staff believe this was the strongest race of the season for the girls and they will continue to improve and drop times.”

Waseca won the team portion of the event with a score of 15. 

The Tigers will be back in action Tuesday when they travel to Mankato.