Fueled by the strength of its seniors Tuesday the Albert Lea boys&8217; track team grabbed some of the top spots in the Winona quadrangular meet.

Senior Tyler Hitchcock placed third in the high jump and fourth in the triple jump.

Senior Richie Needham placed second in the long jump with a jump of 19 feet 6 1/4 inches, only six inches shy of his personal best. Needham also anchored the 4×200 relay of Jordan Smerud, Colton Zuniga, and Dan Edwards which placed second.

While the seniors led the way, the underclassmen found their way into the act as freshman David Grano ran a gutsy 1600 to place fourth.

Newcomer Trevor Rasmussen ran strong 800s in the 4×800 and the open 800. The 4×800 of Grano, Lars Gjersvik, Trevor Rasmussen, and Ethan Marquardt placed third.

Rasmussen also placed third in the open 800.

Other notable performances were Needham&8217;s fifth place finish in the 400, Smerud&8217;s fifth place finish in the triple jump, Isaac Brandt&8217;s fourth place finish in the high jump, and Marquardt&8217;s fifth place finish in the pole vault and first place finish in the 3,200.

USC/AC boys&8217; track finishes first;girls&8217; second at USC/AC Invitational

The USC/AC boys&8217; and girls&8217; track teams enjoyed the benefits of a home meet Tuesday as the teams finished first and second, respectively, at the USC/AC Invitational out of a field of six teams.

The boys&8217; team blew away the competition, scoring 205 points and winning the meet by 102 points.

The Rebels won three of the four relays. Teddy Wiebold, Riley Stenzel, Jordan Haroldson and Bryan Hauge combined to take the 4×200 relay.

Wiebold, Stenzel, Justin Melby and Thane O&8217;Rourke captured first place in the 4×100 relay. The USC team of Jacob Elmer, Paul Little, Haroldson and Hauge won the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:35.

Haroldson&8217;s day continued to get better as he competed in the 1600 event for the first time in his career and stormed from behind to win the event.

The 100-meter dash told the tale for the meet and the dominance the Rebels displayed. USC grabbed the Nos. 2 through 5 spots in the race.

&8220;Two things that I felt were real positive signs were the 2-3-4-5 finish of Stenzel, O&8217;Rourke, Teddy Wiebold, and Justin Melby in the 100-meter dash, and the continued improvement of Tommi Formella in the 3,200-meter run,&8221; head coach Kent Viesselman said.

The girls&8217; team finished second in the meet but drew praise from Viesselman for the resilency it showed.

&8220;Our girls are improving as a team,&8221; Viesselman said. &8220;They turned in 36 personal records Tuesday and were much more competitive than they were a week ago at St. James, when Blue Earth Area got us by 65 points.&8221;

This time around the Buccaneers prevailed by 14 points over the Rebels.

Five athletes earned victories for USC in the meet. Brianna Gormley won the 100 meter dash, Ciara Christenson took home the 300-meter hurdles in the track events. Meanwhile Sarah Schultz won the discus, Sabrina Bushlack won the high jump and Carolyn Schmitz scored a win in the pole vault in the field events.