RICHLAND CENTER — As temperatures begin to drop and the cross country season grows longer, the North Crawford runners appear to be getting much stronger.

The Trojans participated in the Claire Hagg Invitational on Thursday, Sept. 24 in Richland Center. Though it was a smaller meet, both the boys and girls teams had very good performances.

On the girls team, Willa Dworschack was the first to cross the finish line for the Trojans in third place in a season best time of 22:41. Not far behind was teammate Martha Bransky in  fourth place with a very good time of 23:03. Next was Brianna Mack, setting a new personal record and finishing in 16th place in 26:26. She was followed by Madison Gander in 18th place in 26:33. Next was Brennah Ghormley in 22nd – 28:00, Faith Krause – 23rd - 28:07, Julia Madurell – 26th -28:56, Grace Corlis 27th – 29:06, Silla Paneghel – 28th – 29:07 and Alejandra Garcia – 36th – 40:12.

Winning the meet for the girls was Prarie du Chien with 29, followed by Richland Center 47, North Crawford 56 and Kickapoo LaFarge 90.

For the Trojan boys team, Jacob Bransky showed much improvement and ended in third place, setting a new personal record with a time of 17:12. That’s 20 seconds faster than his previous best.

Next for boys was Brady Allbaugh in 17th with a time of 20:11. He was followed by Cameron Steyer 27th with 20:59 (a new personal record as well), Dominic Carstens – 32nd – 22:13, Thomas Turben – 34th – 22:46 (PR) and Brayden Friar – 46th – 23:59.

The team results are: Kickapoo-LaFarge 51, Southwestern 62, Riverdale 77, Prarie du Chien 85, North Crawford 101 and Wauzeka-Stueben 117.

 “All of the athletes are getting stronger and most set personal records on what I consider a fairly tough course,” said coach Mike Allbaugh, following the meet. “It is exciting to see the improvement in each race. It is going to be a great end to the season if we continue to grow at this rate!”