PELLA — The Marshalltown High School cross country teams got a pair of top-10 individual finishes to highlight their trip to the 15th Heartland Cross Country Classic on Saturday at the Central College course.

The Bobcat girls collected fourth place behind junior Phoebe Hermanson’s seventh-place finish, while the MHS boys were sixth overall led by junior Conner Smith’s sixth-place outcome.

Hermanson set the pace for the Bobcat girls, who finished with 115 points — only one point out of third place behind Carlisle (114). Southeast Polk (26) won the nine-team event with ADM (86) in second.

Hermanson clocked in at 20 minutes, 45.2 seconds to lead MHS, while Odaly Flores was next to cross in 21st position (21:53.4). Micah Blevins placed 25th (22:10.2), Rachel Smith scored 39th (23:32.7) and Grace Rasmussen was 44th (24:12.8).

On the boys side, the Bobcats finished with 140 points to place sixth behind Carlisle (53), Center Point-Urbana (54), Atlantic (91), Davis County (95) and Ottumwa (127) in the nine-team meet.

Smith crossed the finish line in 17:06.7 to finish within 45 seconds of the overall leader, Eli Larson of Center Point-Urbana (16:22.3). It was another two minutes before the next Bobcat came across as sophomore Anthoneih Kopsa collected 35th place in 19:09.8. Jason Strand scored 37th in 19:19.7, Noah Hermanson was 43rd in 19:48.8, and Marco Herrera took 44th in 19:55.7.

COMET INVITE

UNION — The West Marshall girls and East Marshall boys emerged as team champions on Saturday at the BCLUW Comet Cross Country Invitational at the South Hardin Recreation Area.

The West Marshall girls totaled 39 points thanks to three top-10 finishers, as all five scoring Trojans ended 12th or better. Emelia Hauser was second in 21 minutes, 41 seconds, Lilly Buck was eighth in 23:26, Natalie Meyer was 10th in 24:06, Jadyn Bunting was 11th in 24:07 and Peyton Smith took 12th in 24:08.

South Tama took third with 83 points, led by a pair of top-10 finishers. Alyssa Chyma came in fifth in 22:07, while Jojo Tyynismaa took sixth in 23:04.

Meskwaki’s Shye Johnson finished seventh in 23:05.

East Marshall’s Mkenzie Robinson finished in fourth place in 21:55, but the Mustangs placed last out of six scoring teams with 123 points. Host BCLUW, which didn’t score as a team, was led by Emma Hoover in 18th place (25:14).

In the boys’ race, East Marshall sophomore Joseph Terrones led the Mustangs to the top spot in the team standings with his individual crown, clocking in at 17:46. East Marshall’s 35 points came from five finishers in the top-10, as Cale Hungerford (19:18), Kaleb Grant (19:22), Kordell Negrette (19:31) and Hunter Hughlette (19:33) packed up in spots 7 through 10.

South Tama’s second-place team finish (58) was powered a pair of medalists as freshmen Tommy Tyynismaa (18:12) and James Brant (18:16) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Host BCLUW was fifth with 120 points, led by Henry Kaisand in sixth place (19:16). West Marshall’s seventh-place team result (147) was powered by runner-up Nicolas Thompson (18:11), while GMG got seventh (202) with Austin Vaverka leading the way in 42nd (21:45).