CARROLL – A strong effort from Tyler Bultena and a gap of less than a minute between its first and fourth runners propelled the Webster City boys’ cross country team to a third-place finish in Class A at Saturday’s Carroll Kuemper Invitational.

The five-kilometer course at Swan Lake State Park was once again difficult, but Bultena managed to tame it in 17:56 to place 10th in a field of more than 70 runners.

WCHS tallied 119 points to trail only 10th-ranked (Class 4A) Urbandale (24 points) and fifth-ranked (3A) Harlan (66).

“The boys had an excellent morning of racing,” WCHS head coach Tony Bussan said. “On what is always a demanding course, we produced one of our better overall performances as a squad. Our third-place finish as a team was a strong showing and demonstrates the progress we have been making.”

Connor Foster crossed in 18:43 to place 21st for the Lynx. Dawson Hjelmeland moved up to the team’s No. 3 by finishing 26th in 18:52. Trey Nelson (18:54) was just two seconds behind Hjelmeland in 28th.

John Brandt (19:25) was 34th to finish off the scoring.

Urbandale’s dominant effort included an individual title for Michael Westphal (17:01).

The Webster City girls’ squad got an improved effort, particularly at the front of its pack, en route to an eighth-place finish with 188 points.

Haley Johnson (22:30) and Allie Flaws (22:31) ran together and placed 26th and 27th, respectively. Ashley Flaws (22:54) stuck as close as she could and registered a 32nd-place performance.

“Our top three girls had their best races of the year,” Bussan said. “It was very encouraging to see the three of them all break 23 minutes together for the first time.”

Courtney Biere (24:16) gave the Lynx 49th-place points. Haley Flaws (24:34) was 54th.

The top-ranked Urbandale girls compiled just 16 points to win the crown.

Urbandale’s Trina Moreno (19:37) was the individual winner.

Max Harfst (19:51) placed eighth and Kaitlyn Wagner (26:19)?took 45th to lead their respective WCHS junior varsity squads.