The United South Central girls and boys cross country teams began their season on a successful note Friday at the 10-team Fairmont Early Bird Invitational.

This meet was run differently than most in that the seniors ran against the other seniors, juniors against juniors, etc.

The top 5 runner times from each team were added together to arrive at a team time.

There were four races for the girls, one for each grade level. Hannah Goemann, Emily Mantor and Bethany Koziolek all won their races decisively, while sophomore Amber Klein finished second in hers.

The fifth counter for the Rebels was Tikvah Schwartz, who finished fourth in the freshman race.

“All five of these were excellent performances,” said Rebel coach Kent Viesselman. “It’s way too early to get too excited, but we certainly got some people’s attention in the girls’ competition. Winning this meet, with the teams that were there by seven minutes is impressive.”

Mantor cut 22 seconds off the USC 4,000-meter record with a time of 14 minutes, 37 seconds. The previous record was 14:59, set by Cheryl Stevermer in 1995.

The boys finished third behind St. James and LeSueur, despite missing two of their starters due to the state fair.

Eric Redman, Logan Thomsen and Brian Remington were all high finishers with Thomas Mantor chipping in a fifth place finish in the freshman race.

“The boys very definitely stepped it up a notch with their summer running,” Viesselman said. “It showed today. Our top three runners were within five seconds of each other. Hopefully, when we get everyone to the starting line, we can pack up all five. ”

Wednesday, the Rebels compete at Mountain Lake.