Hiawatha runners paced the competition at the Falls City Cross Country Invitational, held Thursday at the Falls City Country Club.
 In the girls’ race, the Red Hawks’ Jordan Puvogel was first in a time of 15-minutes, 40-seconds over the 4-kilometer course.  That was more than a minute and a half faster than the runner-up, Lacey Larsen of Rock Port who finished in 17-minutes, 18-seconds. 
 Kendey Eaton of Mound City finished 3rd, Kailey Davis of Hiawatha was 4th, and Kendall Scott of Mid-Buchanan rounded out the top five.  Falls City’s Lainey Larsen was 6th, Hiawatha’s Katie Rosa was 8th and Mykah Barnes was 9th, and Lauren Bierman of Falls City finished 10th.
 Hiawatha was the top team with 13 points.  Mound City was second with 26 points.
 Hiawatha had five of the top six individual finishers in the boys’ race.  Tyler Boeckman was first in 17-minutes, 52-seconds over the 5-kilometer course. 
 Second place went to Gage Lemmon of Rock Port in 18-minutes, 11-seconds.
 The next four runners were from Hiawatha – Baxter Defore, Conner Winter, Cody Bird, and Mitchell Williams. 
 Corbin Minter of Rock Port was 7th, followed by Brandon Gibson of Falls City in 8th place, and Johnson County Central’s Brady Parrish and Garrett Hamilton rounding out the top 10.  Anthony Baker of Falls City placed 12th.
 Hiawatha was the top team with 13 points; Rock Port was second with 36 points; JCC had 50 points for 3rd place; Falls City was a close 4th with 58 points; and West Nodaway placed 5th in the team standings with 89 points.