Suttons Bay's boys' team and the St. Mary girls' squad each finished in the top half of the schools competing in cross country invitationals last week.

St. Mary finished third at the 10-team Kingsley Invitational on Thursday, Sept. 27, while Suttons By finished 12th out of 25 teams at the Carson City Invitational Saturday.

For St. Mary, coach Karen Kirt said the race was a good setup for Tuesday’s Buckley Jamboree, when teams will compete in both a Northwest Conference and Greater Northwest Conference meet for the third and final time this year.

“The girls ran a great race, but they’ll have to pick it up if we’re to catch Glen Lake at the Jamboree or have any hopes of qualifying for States,” Kirt said. “It’s crunch time.”

Benzie Central won the Kingsley Invitational, with the host Stags second and St. Mary third. Senior Alyssa Korson led the Eagles with a 14th-place finish in 22:40, while Allison Korson was 15th in 22:45. Both earned medals, which went to the top 25 finishers.

Rounding out the top five for St. Mary were Breanna Korson (30th in 24:12), German exchange student Laura Keller (34th in 24:30), and Kayla Kermode (39th in 24:46).

The St. Mary boys’ squad finished sixth, but sophomore Kyle Helwig, who is recovering from shin splints, posted his fastest time of the year (20:36) to finish 40th. Benzie, which had seven of the top 10 finishers, won the meet with Mason County Central second and Kingsley third. The other top Eagle runners included Eric Smith (55th in 21:44), Kienan Sutton (59th in 21:57), Aaron Helwig (65th in 22:24), and Christiaan Krombeen (72nd in 23:30).

In addition to the Buckley Jamboree, St. Mary will run at the Mesick Invitational on Oct. 11 and the Traverse City Central Invitational on Oct. 13.

Suttons Bay coach Mark Smith said his team “looked tired” after running in the conference Jamboree on Sept. 27, then working hard during a tough week of practice.

“But they all ran hard,” Smith said. “There were about 100 schools running in different divisions and it was an exciting opportunity for our kids to see some of the best runners in the state.”

The top-rated Division 4 team in the state, Hesperia, won the race. Suttons Bay’s boys were 12th in the 25-team race, and nearly 300 boys and girls finished the varsity races.

Sophomore Ben Wynsma paced the Norsemen by finishing eighth overall in 16:54. Several other runners also finished under 21 minutes in the 5K course, including Mark Jasinksi (62nd in 19:00), Juan Reyes (63rd in 19:04), Chase Palmer (72nd in 19:14), Tom Pritz 993rd in 19:53), Sawyer Lawler (110th in 20:34), and Travis Smith (120th in 20:59).

In the JV race, Marco Brambini was timed in 22:31, Nathan Blue ran a 22:46 and Nick Collins finished at 24:53 for Suttons Bay.

Elizabeth Adams and Cassandra Buffum finished together with times of 23:26 and 23:28, respectively, to pace the Norse girls. Rachel Farrell was the only Norse runner to finish with a personal-best time at the meet (25:32).

Suttons Bay returns to action Saturday at the Pine River Invitational and Tuesday at the Buckley Jamboree. Glen Lake, which didn’t have a meet last week, runs at the Portage Central Invitational Saturday and the Buckley Jamboree Tuesday.