Full Jeff West cross country invite results -- click here

Multiple area teams were off at the start of the gun on Thursday to start the cross country season all competing against each other at the Jeff West Invitational on Thursday. At the end of the day many area team and individuals notched great opening performances to start the year.

Highlighting the performances were the Hiawatha Red Hawks and Sabetha Bluejays claiming individual titles as Jordan Puvogel and Keegan Cox who individual titles on the day and both the Red Hawks and Bluejays also had top three-team finishes. While multiple other area teams had top 20 finishers on the day.

In the boys come, Hiawatha claimed the best area performance finishing second place with 79 points, finishing behind KC East Christ Academy who finished with 45 total points. Sabetha boys took home third place, while Christ Prep Academy notched fourth and McLouth nabbed fifth place as a team. The rest of the team finishes came out with - Royal Valley (6th), Onaga (7th), Wetmore (8th), Holton (9th), Perry Lecompton (10th), Valley Falls (11th), Jeff West (12th), Northern Heights (13th) and Midland Adventist Academy (14th).

On the girls side, the Hiawatha Red Hawks took home second place as a team like the boys, as they finished with 49 points, only seven points behind Christ Prep Academy who took home first place as a team. KC East Christ Academy took home third place, while ACCHS Tigers placed fourth as a team and the host Jeff West Tigers rounded out the top five team finishes. The rest of the team finishes came out with - Sabetha (6th), Royal Valley (7th), McLouth (8th), Holton (9th), Northern Heights (10th), Perry Lecompton (11th) and Onaga (12th).

Individually on the day in the boys competition it was Sabetha Bluejay sophomore, Keegan Cox who posted a time of 18:15.69 to claim first place on the day, while his teammates Corbin Cox and Mitchell Lierz posted Top 20 finishes. Corbin tallied seventh place (19:13.41), while Lierz finished 19th on the day (20:05.04). The Hiawatha Red Hawk boys also had three Top 20 finishers as junior, Jesse Quinn paced them on the day with his sixth place finish (19:11.89), while Brandt Houk finished eighth (19:13.64) and Tom Nolte ran to an 11th place finish (19:38.17).

ACCHS, Wetmore, McLouth, Perry Lecompton, Royal Valley and Onaga all had Top 20 finishers on the day. For the Tigers of ACCHS junior, Justin Siebert posted a time of 18:42.34 to place fifth, while Wetmore Cardinal sophomore, Aaron Achten finished ninth on the day with a time of 19:16.76. A pair of McLouth/Oskaloosa runners registered Top 20 finishes as Ryan Bristol and Tristan Funk finished 13th and 16th with times of 19:40.90 and 19:55.95, respectively. For Perry Lecompton, Bjorn Funk finished 14th (19:48.38), while Kwaki Spoonhunter for Royal Valley finished 18th (20:00.85) and Michael Eisenbarth of Onaga notched a 20th place finish (20:08.76).

Individually in the girls competition it was Hiawatha Red Hawk, Jordan Puvogel doing what she has all her high school career and that is win a cross country meet, this time posting a time of 17:16.17 to grab the win at the Jeff West Invite. Her teammates, Molly Kettler, Kailey Davis and Aly Samburg all finished in the Top 10, finishing fourth, sixth and tenth with times of 18:07.14, 18:22.04 and 18:31.66, respectively.

Perry Lecompton had the best area performer not from Hiawatha as sophomore, Lexia Jamison finished third behind a time of 17:52.87. While, ACCHS had the second most area Top 20 finishers with Madison Bissell finishing eighth (18:29.42), Beba Scholz notching a 18th place finish (19:10.05) and Maddison Forbe finishing 19th (19:11.67).

Sabetha, Jeff West and Royal Valley all had Top 20 finishers also on the day as Taryn Schuette for Sabetha finished seventh (18:27.64), Makenzie Tucker of Jeff West finished 12th (18:34.62) and Kaytlyn Gooderl of Royal Valley finished 13th (18:39.40).

The season started off with plenty to build on for many area teams in the first cross country meet of the season.