Ethan Marquardt won his third race of the season and Chrissy Monson finished second at a meet for the fifth time this season at the Northfield Invite Thursday.

Marquardt won the 5-kilometer race by a whopping 21 seconds over second place finisher Trent Lusignan of Shakopee. Marquardt turned in a time of 16 minutes, 9 seconds and led much of the race.

“He is a phenomenal runner and a true joy to watch run and work with,” Tigers head coach Jim Haney said. “His success is well deserved as he has worked very hard to improve in his four years of running in Albert Lea.”

Marquardt has finished no worse than sixth at every meet this year for the Tigers.

The boys’ team finished sixth overall and was only six points away from a fourth place finish. Joe Daniels and Steve Kreun finished 18th and 19th respectively for Albert Lea. Daniels finished with a time of 17:25 and Kreun was 10 seconds behind at 17:35.

“The Albert Lea cross country team did a great job on the Northfield meet,” Haney said. “They ran closer in a pack and surprised some teams by getting sixth place.”  
Owatonna won the meet with a team point total of 39 and a team time of 1:23:37.8. The Tigers finished with a time of 1:28:18.3, good for 138 points.

Monson meanwhile has remained a constant for the girls’ team, clocking a time of 15:08.2 in the 4-K run for second place. She was beaten by Maria Hauger of Shakopee, who finished the race in 14:39.5.

The Albert Lea girls finished 11th overall with a team time of 1:28:48.1 and Shakopee won the meet with a team total of 65 points and a time of 1:17:54.6.

“Chrissy Monson was pushed to the limit by two Prior Lake girls,” Haney said. “I was impressed as she held off the girls and pushed to the finish showing her competitive drive. Chrissy loves to compete and she has shown a great deal of poise in running with the best the state has to offer.”

Monson finished just in front of Taylor Scholl of Prior Lake, who came in with a time of 15:08.08.

The girls’ team has been battling illness and Haney expects the team to return to full strength for its next meet in Owatonna.

“We need to get healthy and once we feel better we will move up in the standings,” Haney said. “I think the girls will bounce back nicely as they love to run in Owatonna.”