The USC/AC boys&8217; cross country team won its sixth consecutive Gopher/Valley Conference Championship at Blooming Prairie last Tuesday behind the 1-2 finish of Jordan Haroldson and Jacob Elmer. Bryan Hauge chipped in a solid fifth place performance, while Paul Little (12th) and Pete Trio (13th) also earned all-conference honors by finishing in the top 15. Jonathon Leland (16th) just missed all-conference, and Eric Klein, running with a bad leg, finished in 32nd.

The girls&8217; team, led by Amber Erickson&8217;s 15th place effort, finished in third as a team, behind heavily-favored Mankato Loyola and a much improved team from Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial.

The other Rebel scorers were Andree Escherich (17th), Shelby Little (20th), Abby Trio (24th) and Kelsey Munson (31st) who all turned in season-best times. Hannah Goemann (34th) and Rachel Brown (35th) also had season best times in the sixth and seventh spots for USC/AC.

The girls&8217; and boys&8217; junior varsity teams also looked very good. The girls won their competition behind the 1-2-3 finish of Nicole Klein, Annie Tomschin and Lindsay Johnson. Bekki Mesner and Steph Johannsen were the other scorers for USC/AC, finishing in eighth and 11th, respectively.

&8220;We put a little pressure on the JV boys before the meet,&8221; USC/AC head coach Kent Viesselman said. &8220;We had won the conference JV competition with a perfect score for three consecutive years, and we put the challenge out there to them. A perfect score is rare, much less to score a perfect score three years in a row. They did us one better, taking not only the top five places, but the top eight.&8221;

Those eight, in order of finish, were Jon Back, Andrew Penning, Tommi Formella, Daniel Elmer, Bryce Olson, Matt Jensen, Justin Melby and Julien Mehler.

&8220;We had a good day,&8221; Viesselman said. &8220;Our boys actually have eight consecutive conference titles, including the last year we were in the South Central Conference. That will be a hard string to keep going, as we lose a very good group of senior boys this June.&8221;

Thursday, the Rebels will compete in the Section 1A cross country championships in Rochester, with the top two teams and the top 10 individuals advancing to the state meet.