The Albert Lea cross country teams ran against some of the state’s best runners Friday at the Faribault Invite and continued to make progress as the season unfolds.

The girls finished 15th out of the 18 teams at the meet and were led by Chrissy Monson’s fourth place finish.

Monson finished with a time of 15 minutes, 12.5 seconds and was a little more than a second behind Bloomington Kennedy’s Carrie Donohue, who finished third.

Lakeville North won the meet with 69 points and Mayo finished second with 99. The Tigers scored 393 points.

“Today was a good test for the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams,” said Tigers head coach Jim Haney. “We ran well but I would have like a higher team place. The team is getting better and the runners continue to learn about racing and competing at a high level. By the end of the season we will be hitting our stride.”

Rachel Kennis had the second best time for Albert Lea, finishing in 17:25 in the 4-kilometer race. Carol Lein ran a 18:27 while Ashley Tewes finished a second back of Lein and Sam Stanley finished in 18:47.

The boys finished 16th out of 18 with 441 points and were led by Steve Kreun.

Kreun placed 58th with a time of 17:58.6 in the 5-kilometer race. Blair Bonnerup took second on the team with an 88nd place showing and a time of 18:56.4. Brian Reindl was next with a time of 19:03 while Joe Daniels turned in a time of 19:21.8 and Eli Malimanek finished in 19:44.9.

“The boys ran well as a pack and Steve Kreun led that pack,” Haney said. “Now we need to get the whole team to move up and they will as the season moves forward. I have many young runners and they continue to learn and are figuring about the things needed to move up in a varsity race.”

The middle school girls won the C race with 76 points.

Riley Schulz and Emma Behling placed in the top 10 with a seventh and eighth place finish, respectively.

“This is a big accomplishment as all the hard work that he girls have done is paying off,” Haney said. “These girls are the future of the team and that future looks great.”