The Albert Lea boys’ and girls’ cross country teams opened their season Tuesday night with a meet in Austin. The boys’ team finished with a solid third place, while the youthful girls’ team came in sixth place.

Junior Logan Barr came in seventh place overall with a time of 17:54.8 and was the highest finisher for the Tigers. Finishing just behind Barr was junior Aaron Bauers (11th, 18:08.8) and senior Travis Jensen (13th, 18:13.9). Also scoring for the Tigers were freshman Gavin Hanke and senior Sam Louters. Hanke came in 17th place with a time of 18:21.4, and Louters finished in 18th place with a time of 18:26.7.

“This was an impressive showing so early in the season,” said head coach Jim Haney. “We now have a strong pack of runners that will only get better with additional training and speed. Our goal is to win the Big Nine and we have taken the first step to try and achieve this goal.”

On the girls’ side, sophomore Karime Ponciano took the highest spot for the Tigers, coming in 16th place with a time of 22:09.4. Freshman Joey Maiden came in 40th place (23:19.8), junior Jaiden Venem came in 42nd (23:28.2), freshman Jai Myers came in 46th (23:37.4) and freshman Kristina Espinosa came in 52nd (24:04.0).

“The girls had an excellent race,” Haney said. “For many of the runners this was the first varsity race and they did a wonderful job of pacing up and moving forward during the last half of the race.”

The Tigers will be back in action Thursday with a meet in St. Olaf.