Three area track teams participated in an indoor meet Saturday at Minnesota State University in Mankato.

In spite of holding six girls and five boys out of the lineup, due to minor injuries, both the United South Central/Alden-Conger girls’ and boys’ track and field teams prevailed in an indoor meet at Minnesota State University, Mankato Saturday.

“At this point, none of the injuries appear to be serious,” said head coach Kent Viesselman. “Several of those we held out could probably have competed if the meet had been more important, but we wanted to be careful. It’s not as though we were the only team that was short-handed. The other schools competing were also missing athletes mostly due to spring break.”

In the boys’ competition, the Rebels finished first, with Albert Lea second, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop third, and New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva fourth.

Trevor Rasmussen won the 800-meter event with a time of 2 minutes, 11.2 seconds for the Tigers and Luke Malimanek won the 3,200 with a time of 12:06.8. Bryce DeBoer added a first-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 44 feet, 9 inches, besting the field by nearly three feet.

Alik Smed took second in both the high jump and long jump and Brody Sunblad added a second-place finish in the pole vault.

The Panthers finished second in the 4×200 relay.

The girls’ competition was essentially a dual meet with NRHEG second and GFW failing to score.

The USC/A-C boys finished first in seven of the sixteen events. Daniel Elmer (1,600), Cody Koenen (high jump), Teddy Wiebold (long jump), and Riley Niebuhr (pole vault) each won an event. The Rebels also won all three relays.

For the girls, Lizzy Leland led Rebel sweeps in both hurdle events, with Hannah Goeman winning both the high jump and the 800-meter run. Also picking up firsts for the Rebels were Andree Escherich (1,600), Amber Erickson (3,200), Annie Tomschin (pole vault), and Amanda Allis (shot put).

Alyssa Kerkhoff won the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.5 seconds for the Panthers, the 400 with a time of 63.7, the 200 with a time of 28.04 seconds, and the long jump with a jump of 15 feet, 3.25 inches.

The 4×800 team also placed first for NRHEG and Alearah Neumann won the triple jump with a jump of 31 feet, 6.75 inches.