MARSHALLTOWN – Coach Tony Bussan is always upbeat, but there was still a little extra giddyup in his step yesterday evening after what he felt was a promising first-meet performance by his Webster City cross country teams at the Marshalltown Early Bird.

Tackling the difficult terrain at the Marshalltown Community College course, both Lynx squads placed fifth against talented fields that included five Class 4A schools.

“I’m just exceptionally pleased,” Bussan said after his boys’ squad tallied 117 points, one fewer than the girls’ team. “We completed extremely well.”

Urbandale dominated both fields. The top-ranked J-Hawk girls took the top seven individual spots on the leaderboard and amassed just 15 points – a 58-point gap to second-place Grundy Center (73). The No. 9 J-Hawk boys put up 28 points, 12 in front of Waterloo West (40).

Urbandale’s Trina Moreno (19:40) and Michael Westphal (16:55) picked up individual gold on the 5-kilometer course.

The veteran trio of Connor Foster, Tyler Bultena and Trey Nelson stayed in close contact as the lead pack for the Lynx boys, and all secured top-25 finishes. Foster pulled away slightly near the finish line to place 19th in 18:29. Bultena crossed in 18:39 to secure 22nd, one spot in front of Nelson (18:42).

Freshman Dawson Hjemeland paced himself over the first mile, but always kept his teammates within sight en route to a 27th-place finish in 19:06. Kyle Porter (19:27, 35th), Tucker Judkins (19:34, 38th) and Max Harfst (19:36, 39th) were all among the top 40 runners to complete the course.

“A number of our boys on varsity set personal records,” Bussan said. “Connor Foster, Tyler Bultena and Trey Nelson did a tremendous job working together as a group, and then (Hjemeland), he was just a little tentative in the first mile, but from that opening mile on he kept (the Lynx leaders) in sight and kept working off them to become a very effective scoring fourth.”

Competing in her first cross country meet in 22 months, Allie Flaws took the lead for the Lynx girls. Flaws, who missed the entire 2014 season because of a torn ACL, toured the course in 22:46 to place 22nd.

Haley Johnson (22:57) gave her teammate a battle and crossed the finish line just 11 seconds later in 19th.

“Our girls gave just a great run,” Bussan said. “Allie did a nice job, and then Haley Johnson really came on to be a solid No. 2 for us. We have the potential there to get them to work together.”

Ashley Flaws gutted out a 26th-place effort in 23:56, one and two spots in front of teammates Courtney Biere (24:12) and Larae Ebrecht (24:14).

WCHS will now turn its focus towards Tuesday’s Lynx Invitational. The meet will again be held at the Webster City Links, beginning at 5 p.m.