MONTGOMERY&045; The United South Central boys’ and girls’ cross country teams showed definite signs of improvement at the Montgomery Invitational Friday.

The 31-team meet was originally scheduled for Thursday, but was postponed to Friday because of lightening.

“Twelve teams chose not to come back, but for the most part, the better teams were there Friday,” said USC coach Kent Viesselman.

The Girls finished third behind strong teams from Glencoe-Silver Lake and Prior Lake. Glencoe started the season rated in the top five in Class A and Prior Lake was rated eighth in AA.

Sara Bias finished second in a very strong girls’ field.

“There were 10 to 12 Girls there that are capable of winning a large invitational on a given day,” said Viesselman.

“Sara (2nd) and Jamie Klein (7th) both finished high in a very strong field.

Viesselman pointed to the strong performances of Becca Bryson (19th) and Kallie Rollenhagen (24th) as a key in the Rebels’ good showing.

“Becca and Kallie both ran into some heat problems at Mountain Lake,” said Viesselman. &uot;But they looked much stronger today.”

Michelle Sonnek (38th), Amelia Treptow (42nd), and Lindsey Rauenhorst (46th) finished out the USC/AC lineup.

“These three girls give us some quality depth in case one of our other runners struggles,&uot; said Viesselman. &uot;A week ago, Madelia/Truman beat us by 19 points, so in getting them by 12 today, the girls have made good improvement in the last week.”

The boys also looked stronger this week, finishing third behind Prior Lake and Blue Earth Area.

“I felt that last week we ran well,” said Viesselman. “We ran better today.”

Justin Youngblom returned to form in finishing third behind Ristau and Shields, both of Blue Earth. Bob Schmitz, a pleasant surprise this year, continued to look strong with a sixth-place finish. Jake Stenzel (19th), Chris Vondracek (29th), and Eric Youngblom (33rd) were the other Rebel scorers.

“Jake, Chris, and Eric will be a key for us this year,” said Viesselman. “They’re looking good right now, and seem to be getting stronger and more competitive each time out.”

Spencer Niebuhr (53rd) and Mike Soma (65th) rounded out the Rebels lineup.

“Spence and Mike are really important, as they are both capable of pushing back the fifth runners of many teams,” said Viesselman.

Thursday, the Rebels travel to Lura Lake for the Maple River Invitational, set for 4:30.

“Most of the teams from our Section will be there, so we’ll get a little sneak preview of how we’re progressing,” said Viesselman.