Chrissy Monson likely won’t be thought of a surprise runner any longer after a trip to state in cross country and track last season.

She grabbed the spotlight as she kicked off the new cross country season with a win in the Austin Invite Tuesday at River Oaks Golf Course.

Monson finished the 4-kilometer race in 15 minutes, 22.17 seconds, beating out Austin’s Haley Splinter by more than 11 seconds as she helped lead the Albert Lea girls’ cross country team to fourth place.

“Chrissy was very much business-like,” said Tigers head coach Jim Haney. “She knew when to turn on the speed and put away her competition. Her effort was much like her run from last year when she won the race.”

Albert Lea finished behind Owatonna, which won the meet with 31 points. Rochester Lourdes scored 66 for second place and John Marshall had 72 points. The Tigers finished with 98 points.

Annabelle Randall placed 24th for Albert Lea with her time of 17:46.86 while Sam Stanley finished 27th with time of 17:56.09. Ashley Tewes and Carol Lein placed 26th and 27th and Lauren Klick took 45th.

Steve Kreun led the boys’ to a fourth place finish with his 10th place showing in the 5-K race. Kreun ran the race in 17:56 as the boys finished behind Owatonna, Austin and John Marshall.

“He has been running varsity for the past four years and has done an outstanding job of getting better and stronger each season,” Haney said of Kreun. “I look forward to seeing Steve surprising many runners in the Big Nine as he has put in all the time and work to be a better runner.”

Joe Daniels placed 22nd with a time of 18:48 while Griffin Wangen ran a 19:22 to place 32nd. Brian Reindl and Eli Malmanek finished 36th and 37th, respectively. Luc Malmanek was just two spots back of Eli with his time of 19:42.

“The best part of the meet was watching my runners gain experience in competition,” Haney said. “My team is very young and with each race they will only get stronger as they understand what it like to run in a cross country race.”