The Albert Lea girls&8217; and boys&8217; cross country teams ran well at the Cardinal Invite in Fairmont Monday.

&8220;I was extremely proud of the Tiger runners yesterday,&8221; Albert Lea head coach Jim Haney said.

&8220;The kids ran well on a hot, windy day and I can see that there is improvement by the team as well as individuals.&8221;

The girls were led by Alyssa Sager&8217;s 12th place finish and Abby Randall with a 15th place showing which helped the Tigers finish fifth in the team race.

&8220;Alyssa has come on in the last two weeks,&8221; Haney said. &8220;Her goal is to be all-conference and I think she has great chance to do this by the way she is running.&8221;

Sager ran a 16:43 and Randall clocked in at 17:02. Lauren Klick was 54th in 19:18 and Tara Helgeson rounded out the top four runners with a 59th place finish in 19:34.

Shelby Lageson finished 64th, Liz Burnett was 69th, Amy Gackstetter finished 76th and Sereh Oligunkanbi was 82nd.

The boys&8217; team, which finished fifth overall, was led by Ethan Marquardt who finished as the runner-up by 38 seconds with a time of 16:45.

&8220;Ethan was beaten by a Division I recruit from South Dakota,&8221; Haney said. &8220;He is right where he needs to be to have the possibility to win the Big Nine.&8221;

Steve Kreun finished 26th with a time of 18:32, Joe Daniels was 35th in 19:28 and Judd Bonnerup came to the finish line in 46th place with a mark of 19:55.

Eric Bowron was 53rd, Josh Kapperick, Chris Dorman and Brian Reindl finished in a group starting at 62nd and Nevy Felet was 83rd.

The Albert Lea boys&8217; junior high team won its race and Chrissy Monson finished second for the girls.