Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke Springfield/Cedar Mountain girls’ cross-country runner Lily McCone took first place at the girls’ cross-country meet at Minnesota Valley Lutheran on Thursday.

NEW ULM — With no state meet this season for cross-country, Springfield/Cedar Mountain girls’ cross-country runner Lily McCone is preparing for her last meet next week at the Section 3A meet in Luverne.

The Tigers runner tuned up for the meet on Thursday at Minnesota Valley Lutheran when she took first in 20:47.

The unusually warm weather may have played a little bit of a factor, but it’s been a strange 2020 season and McCone was just happy with her results on Thursday.

“It’s not my best, but it’s not my worst either,” she said. “It’s hot out here, but it was nice with the breeze.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, McCone and all of the other cross-country runners won’t have the chance to compete for the state meet. While that’s disappointing for her, she will now focus her attention on the section meet.

“Sections is next week, it’s a bummer, but I’m just going and trying to run my best at sections,” she said. “It’s really hard because you have to change your mindset. Instead of the end goal being state, it has to be a time. It’s hard, but once you get used to it. It’s been good, my times are consistently better than last year.”

The S/CM girls ran away with the top score on Thursday, finishing first with 19 points. Wabasso was a distant second with 46 points and MVL was third with 69 points.

Also S/CM, Emmie McCone was second overall in 21:01. Skyla Dauer (third, 21:29), Ellie Tonn (fourth, 22:12) and Violet Hovland (ninth, 24:28) also finished among Springfield’s Top 5.

Wabasso’s Sarah Franta took fifth overall in 22:16. She was followed by Halle Huhnerkoch (sixth, 22:17), Madeline Hanna (10th, 24:35), Natasha Doubler (11th, 24:43) and Addison Jenson (14th, 25:55).

MVL was led by Naomi Anderson, who finished seventh in 23:58. She was followed by Pricilla Bauer (eighth, 22:00), Anna Van Riesen (18th, 27:52), Caitlyn Otto (19th, 28:41) and Dora Grubbs (20th, 29:23).

On the boys’ side, S/CM also dominated. The Tigers took four of the first six spots and won with a team score of 16 points. MVL was second with 47 points and Wabasso was third with a team score of 73.

Leading the way for the Tigers was Ben Potter, who took first in 19:05. Zach Hensch (second, 19:16), Matthew Groebner (third, 19:19), Brayden Sturm (fourth, 19:30) and Triston Groebner (sixth, 20:05) also rounded out the Tigers’ Top 5 runners.

For MVL, Mitchell Ulrich led the way, finishing fifth in 19:40. Caleb Carlovsky was seventh (20:11), Josiah Guenther was eighth (20:21), Isaiah Carlovsky was 13th (21:29) and Ben Halvorson was 14th (21:30).

Wabasso was led by Adryen Tretz (ninth, 20:30), Nicholas Irlbeck (11th, 20:53), Aidan Kampsen (16th, 21:42), Kaysen Harms (19th, 23:43), and Jacob Doyle (20th, 24:49).