Photo by Travis Rosenau: Wabasso’s Andrew Morin runs to a runner-up finish during the Tomahawk/Valley Cross Country Championships at Winthrop Golf Club on Monday.

WINTHROP — While the Mankato Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair Crusaders boys and girls teams both dominated the competition during Monday afternoon’s Tomahawk-Valley Conference Cross-Country Championships, senior Andrew Morin and freshman Elsie Leopold proudly represented the little town of Wabasso with a pair of top-five finishes at Winthrop Golf Club.

Morin finished second in the boys 5K with a time of 17:47.4, while Leopold took fourth in the girls 5k with a time of 20:36.

BOYS 5K

Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair won the boys meet with 27 points, finishing ahead of Madelia (61), Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s/Sleepy Eye/New Ulm Cathedral (84), Springfield/Cedar Mountain (102), Martin County West/Butterfield-Odin (128), Lester Prairie (147) and Wabasso (172).

Crusader control aside, Morin’s finish trailed just Crusaders senior Soren Kelly, who won the boys race with a top time of 16:51.1.

Morin said there were certain stretches he had the wind in his face on the breezy, chilly Monday race, but he took it in stride.

“You just kind of have to take certain things as is,” Morin said. “The hills and everything, that helped, having the sunlight out also did help a ton. Just the thought of the heat. … Hills, fantastic, and when it was flat, it was just nice and smooth.”

Morin said while Monday wasn’t his best time, he put it up there with one of his better finishes this season.

“This was not my fastest race, but the goal isn’t to run my fastest race here, that’s for next week, run my fastest race at sections,” Morin said. “All in all, I’d say this was still probably one of my better meets throughout the year.”

As for what he’s aiming for at sections, Morin said he’d like to hit the 16:30 mark. His season-best time and PR is 16:43.2, which he set on Oct. 6 at the Central Minnesota Christian varsity meet.

Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair had the No. 3 and 4 finishes in the boys race as Mitchell Buboltz took third (18:08.9) and Francis Bierer took fourth (18:26.7). SM/SE/NUC freshman Max Fischer made a strong push on his final lap to take fifth with a time of 18:29.

Rounding out the top 10 boys finishers were Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair’s Griffin Rutz (18:31.8), Springfield’s Dylan Dewitt (18:32.9), Madelia’s Tyrone Stout (18:34.9), SM/SE/NUC’s Levi Hagen (18:35.3) and Madelia’s Caleb DeCann (18:40.4).

GIRLS 5K

Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair also controlled the girls race and finished as champions (21), ahead of Springfield/CM (64), Wabasso (83), MCW/BO (97) and Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop (97).

Leopold, who ended up trailing just the Crusaders trio of Charlotte Meyer (19:17.8), Valerie Quast (19:28.5) and Lila Quast (20:21.6) in the girls race, said her strategy during the race was to use the runners and course to her advantage when possible.

“I was just trying to push really hard on the spots that didn’t have a lot of wind and then when the spots had wind, I tried to hide behind people and push to get around,” she said.

Much like Morin, Leopold said her goal for the conference race was a strong finish but to save her best work for sections next week.

“I was trying to push hard today but save it mostly for sections to push even harder there,” she said.

Leopold said she’s aiming for 19 minutes flat for the section race in hopes of qualifying for the state meet. Wabasso is in Section 3A, and that meet will take place on Thursday at Madison.

Finishing fifth behind Leopold was MCW/BO’s Evelynn Christenson, while Springfield/CM’s Katie Thram took sixth (21:40.5), Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair’s Maddie Seiwert took seventh (21:58.5), SM/SE/NUC’s Millie Lax took eighth (22:07.8), SM/SE/NUC’s Emma Hagen finished ninth (22:11.4) and Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair’s Riley Quigley took 10th (22:12.8).