EAGLE GROVE – Not at its best, the fourth-ranked (Class 2A) South Hamilton boys’ cross country team still cruised to yet another team championship at the Eagle Grove Golf Course on Tuesday.

It makes you wonder just how dangerous this team can be when it’s clicking on all cylinders.

Season title No. 6 was never really in doubt, as the Hawks placed four runners inside the top 10 and registered 35 points to win Class B by 25 points at the Dick Bell Invitational. Eighth-ranked (1A) Eagle Grove was second with 60 points, followed by West Fork (73) and Mason City Newman (79).

Sitting atop the leaderboard was a plus, but South Hamilton head coach Darrell Paulsen says there are hopefully better races to come.

“I think we can run better and I think we will run better,” he said. “Once we can

get the kids into the district mode and find out where we’re going and get those good eight days of practice in, I think we’ll run our best.”

For the first time all season, someone other than sophomore Logan Peters took the team lead for the Hawks. Freshman Quinton Grove sprinted by his teammate down the final straightaway and crossed the finish line in third place in 17:47. Peters was just a few steps behind in fourth with a time of 17:49.

Josiah Brown (17:58) broke 18 minutes again and wound up in sixth place, while Devon Fisher (18:03) was five seconds behind in the eighth position. Gaige Pickering (18:45) continued the recovery process from a nagging injury to finish 14th.

“Eagle Grove is a pretty difficult course with a really big hill that you have to run up twice, but I think some of the guys could have run faster,” Paulsen said.

The South Hamilton girls’ team settled into seventh place with 199 points. Eighth-ranked (2A) Emmetsburg was the team champion with 34 points, followed by No. 8-ranked (1A) Mason City Newman (50) and No. 10-ranked (1A) West Fork (66).

With team leader Katie Austin not competing, Natalie Johnson (26:18) and Annie Johnson (26:24) shared the role and placed 45th and 46th, respectively. Ella Carlson (27:19) was 49th, Emily Willadson (28:16) 51st and Lydia Spicer (32:50) 62nd.

South Hamilton will hold its own Jim Klein Invite this afternoon at the Jewell Golf and Country Club. The junior high races will kick things off at 4:15. The varsity boys’ race is slated for 4:45 p.m., followed by the combined JV/varsity girls and then the JV?boys.