Rush City runners shined at the Two Rivers Conference Meet Oct. 11, as three athletes earned All-Conference.

Laura Hestbeck, Bryanna Koehnle and Zach Saumer each earned all-conference.

In addition, five Tiger runners had all-conference honorable performances. Ashley Swanson, Erin Kossan, Reilly Melin, Ike Johnson and Isaac Roll each earned honorable mention.

"Nearly all of our runners in both boys and girls ran their best times of the year. We were very happy with everyone's effort. Our runners have worked real hard in practice and the faster times today are a result of that," head coach Kevin Smith said.

Amery Invite

Six inches of moving water was what the Rush City cross country had to run through at the Amery Invitation On Oct. 2.

The weather conditions lowered their times, but the girls still managed to place 4th out of nine teams in the small school class and 8th out of 19 teams overall.

Hestbeck earned 12th place finish.

The boys team, at the same race, finished 12th out of 17 teams.

"The race was very wet and muddy ... They enjoyed the mess, but poor footing, wind and rain lowered their times a lot," Smith said.

Swain Invitational

On Oct. 6, the cross country team traveled north for the annual Swain Invitational in Duluth.

With less than ideal conditions for the second consecutive race, the boys took 27th place out of 32 teams.

Smith said the weather slowed down the runners by an average of 30 to 50 seconds.

Saumer was the boys top runner, taking 79th place out of 220 runners. Melin finished 113th.

"A very tough day on a hilly, demanding course. We were ready for the hills but the weather slowed us down ... This course is the most difficult we run on each year, but today it was even more of a challenge." Smith said.