Throughout their first three meets of the season, Hermann Middle School (HMS) and Hermann High School (HHS) cross country runners have earned a total of 18 medals between racing action from Linn, Sullivan and New Haven.

Over the weekend in Saturday’s Linn Cross Country Invitational at the Osage County Fairgrounds, 10 different Hermann runners earned medals for their respective finishes.

Seeing high school action kick off the morning of racing this past Saturday, Hermann’s varsity Bearcats placed fifth as a team with 138 points finishing behind Blair Oaks (65), Fulton (110), St. James (111) and New Haven (130).

Nathan Menke led three Bearcats in the top 20 with a 16th-place time of 19:23.99. He was followed in the medals by fellow senior Ryker Ash (17th, 19:24.92) and junior CJ Mires (20th, 19:43.09).

Fellow Bearcats helping Hermann place fifth as a team in Linn included Chase Branson (47th, 21:25.73), Jackson Engemann (60th, 22:51.00), James Leavy (71st, 23:51.88) and Holden Schales (73rd, 23:54.32).

Also in Linn, Hermann’s Lady Bearcats placed eighth as a team with 163 points led by their lone medalist in sophomore Eileen Swofford with a 26th-place time of 25:28.35.

Lady Bearcats finishing behind Swofford included Fynnlee Riffle (48th, 28:10.56), Lillian Vogelsang (57th, 29:30.55), Ellison Calvert (64th, 31:28.63), Kylie VandeVoorde (76th, 33:59.94) and Sidney Heldt (79th, 34:25.58).

Topping the JV boys team field with 35 points, Hermann’s JV Bearcats finished ahead of Fulton (39), Versailles (86), Russellville (88) and New Haven (98).

Matthew Tallent led the JV Bearcats with a fourth-place time of 21:44.49.

Also among the top 20 and medal position for Hermann in the JV boys race was Landon Wilson (10th, 23:13.88), Andrew Calvert (14th, 23:32.38) and Laramie Bristow (19th, 24:07.94).

Finishing behind them for the JV Bearcats were Jakob Hoener (23rd, 24:42.59), Lane Bristow (33rd, 27:14.09), Kayden Brinker (34th, 27:20.27), Teagan Rucker (37th, 28:28.01) and Logan Tyree (43rd, 30:46.05).

Hermann’s Middle School (HMS) Bearcats finished sixth as a team in Linn with 148 points behind New Bloomfield (52), Lewis & Clark (99), Owensville (101), Thomas Jefferson (110) and South Callaway (145).

Jaxon Kallmeyer was Hermann’s lone race medalist rounding out the top 10 of the middle school boys individual standings with a 10th-place time of 12:32.51.

Finishing behind Kallmeyer for the blue and white were Olson Rucker (22nd, 13:32.11), Henry Lindahl (35th, 14:05.08), James Shoemaker (54th, 15:01.32), Mason Roche (58th, 15:05.80), Easton Bailey (79th, 16:22.03), Miles Busch (83rd, 16:31.92) and William Traub (113th, 19:06.51).

In the middle school girls division, Hermann placed ninth with 207 team points led by medalist Sophia Bohl with a ninth-place time of 14:22.15.

HMS Lady Bearcats finishing behind Bohl were Elise Shoemaker (37th, 16:18.34), Hendricks Biermann (57th, 17:20.46), Iris Pottebaum (70th, 18:28.12), Lillian Azevedo (81st, 18:49.70) and Audrey Talamante (87th, 19:23.41).

Last Tuesday at the Sullivan Invitational, HMS’ harriers competed with six runners earning medals for finishing among either the top 20 middle school boys or girls.

Bohl (6th, 16:05.14), Biermann (9th, 16:55.64), Shoemaker (11th, 17:31.97) and Pottebaum (15th, 17:52.38) earned medals for the Lady Bearcats helping them place second as a team with 60 points behind Washington (52).

Kallmeyer (10th, 13:49.57) and Lindahl (19th, 14:56.34) also earned medals for HMS’ Bearcats at Sullivan.

Over Labor Day weekend at New Haven, Kallmeyer claimed his first medal of the season with a seventh-place time of 13:59.1 while Bohl was the race-runner up on the girls side in a second-place time of 15:44.6.

Hermann’s JV Bearcats placed second as a team at New Haven with 61 points led by the trio of Leavy (9th, 23:32.0), Schales (10th, 23:35.6) and Andrew Calvert (11th, 23:44.0) who all earned medals.