HUMBOLDT – The South Hamilton cross country teams were unable to make a play for spots in the upper half of the standings at Monday’s monstrous Humboldt Invitational at Sheldon Park.

The one class meet featured 20 teams; there were four ranked teams in the girls’ race and seven in the boys’ competition.

The Hawk girls placed 14th with 336 points, while the boys were 17th with 409.

“It’s a flat course until you get into the woods and then you have a hill … I just think the kids get themselves too worked up about it,” South Hamilton head coach Darrell Paulsen said. “By this time of the year you should be in pretty good shape to run anything.”

Kayla Lucas returned from a two-meet absence to lead South Hamilton; the senior placed 30th in 17:58 and she was well over a minute faster than anyone else on the roster.

“It was good to have Kayla back,” Paulsen said.

Rachael Huegerich turned in a time of 19:17 to place 67th, and Allyson Ervin was 73rd in 19:21. Katie Austin (19:37) and Hannah Myers (20:48) rounded out the scoring in 81st and 101st, respectively.

Kali Lucas and Annie Johnson were unable to finish the race.

Drake Thompson took 38th in 19:07 for the Hawk boys. Devon Fisher (63rd, 19:47) and Josiah Brown (84th, 20:22) also broke into the top 100.

Second-ranked (Class 1A) Pocahontas Area took home the girls’ team title, while third-ranked (3A) Algona was the boys’ champion.

South Hamilton will compete at the Roland-Story Invitational in Story City on Thursday.