2016 Royal Valley Invite Champs the Jackson Heights Girls & Boys Cross Country Teams (Photo credit: Meghann Eisermann)

2016 Royal Valley Cross Country Invitational Full Results - click here

Several area teams traveled to Hoyt on Thursday to continue their cross country season as Royal Valley played host to the competition. 

On the day it was the Jackson Heights Cobras striking for both the girls and boys team titles. The lady Cobras took first out of four teams just edging Santa Fe Trail on a tie breaker for first place, while Sabetha took third and Holton finished fourth as a team. For the boys competition Jackson Heights won the team title easily by 44 points, as McLouth took second and St. Marys Academy finished third. Santa Fe Trail, Royal Valley, Sabetha and Holton finished the boys team standings placing fourth through seventh, respectively. 

Leading Jackson Heights on the day was the running of Faith Little who tallied a second place finish with a time of 19:49.21, while her teammate Skyla Howe snagged seventh place with a time of 23:09.17. Jill Buck and Trinity McMahon added Top 20 finishes for the lady Cobras finishing 19th and 20th. Jackson Heights boys were led by Dalton Chartier who behind a time of 18:19.10 earned a fourth place finish, while Lane Thomas (18:58.50), Mark Mavrovich (19:00.01), Drew Holiday (19:17.28) and Xavier Fritz (19:17.93) all finished in the Top 10, also placing sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth. Ethan Fund and Andrew Pino added 14th and 17th place finishes for the Cobra boys. 

The top area runner in the boys race was Sabetha Bluejay, Keegan Cox who raced to a time of 18:17.61 to place third, while Henry Glynn took 11th place. Lady Bluejays had Megan Meyer grab a fourth place finish with a time of 22:12.04, while Mahalie Allen with a time of 24:04.11 took tenth place. Madisen Cochran and Marissa Cox added 14th and 18th place finishes for the lady Bluejays. 

Three Top 10 finishes were posted for McLouth as Braden Pfau (18:40.78) and Dakota Driskill (19:09.79) earned fifth and eighth place finishes in the boys race, while Ceara Funk (23:05.41) raced to a sixth place finish in the girls competition. Justin Shuffleberger added a 13th place finish in the boys race for McLouth. 

Host Royal Valley was led by Katie Hanshaw with her fifth place time of 22:43.06, while Chloe Richter added a 15th place finish in the girls race for the Panthers. In the boys competition Garrett Hicks notched the top Panther performance finishing 12th and Nue Tinajero placed 19th. 

Holton Wildcats had a pair of Top 20 finishers at the Royal Valley Invitational as Taygen Altenburg placed 12th in the girls race and Wyatt Marriott ran to a 15th place finish in the boys competition.