The Columbus Junction cross country team raced this weekend at the Benton Invitational.

The boy’s team finished eighth, while the girls finished seventh.

On the girl’s side of things, Caitlin Chaney led the team with a 29th place run of 17:07. Behind her was Taylor Hills in 32nd, Claire Hamilton in 36th, Grace Chapman in 44th and Ashley Canny in 45th.

The Wildcats had 186 points. Solon won the girls meet with 49.

On the boy’s side, Eli Sents was the top runner, finishing in 16th with a time of 18:24, but right behind him was Efrain Barajas in 19th with a time of 18:32. Other scorers were Josh Keller in 51st, Mitchell Roush in 53rd and Dalton Howell in 55th.

The boys finished with 194 points. Mount Vernon- Lisbon won the meet with 59.

Head coach Steve Riley says he was very happy with how the meet went, and that almost all of his runners ran faster times than last year.

“It was probably our best meet so far,” Riley said. “We compared times from last year, with the kids who ran there, and most of them ran better than last year, and we a had a lot of kids running a high school race for the first time, and they did outstanding too.”

The Wildcats will race next week, at Mt. Pleasant.