NEW HAVEN — Opening their season last Tuesday at the Fleet Feet Classic in Arnold, Matt Candrl’s Owensville High School cross country teams were joined by their middle school counterparts over the weekend at the New Haven Invitational held at New Haven City Park.

After all six races had concluded, a total of eight OHS harriers left Shamrock country with medals around their necks led by varsity girls race winner Ilene Limberg.

“Ilene was just in the zone today,” Candrl said. “She was focused on running a successful race grabbing the lead early and never looking back.”

Due to not having the required 14 practices to be eligible, there were not any Dutchgirls in the middle school girls race.

Owensville’s race day began with the middle school boys race.

OMS sixth grader Robbie Rodriguez posted the highest finish for Owensville with a 13th-place time of 14:25.81.

He was followed by Hunter Anderson’s 17th-place time of 14:37.68 and Max Altemeyer’s 21st-place time of 15:11.20.

Also helping Owensville to a third-place finish in the middle school boys team standings were Ricky Ringeisen (32nd, 16:22.06), Daimeyn Rogers (42nd, 17:13.62), Dylan Dietrich (43rd, 17:24.44) and Merlin Ramirez (50th, 19:38.63).

Hermann topped the middle school boys team standings with 32 points followed by Union (55), Owensville (71), Winfield (93) and New Bloomfield (103).

Kicking off the high school portion of racing Saturday morning were the junior varsity girls.

Senior Grace Abell led the orange and black with a 13th-place time of 26:42.15 good for one of the last medaling positions.

Elaina Lebish just missed making it two JV Dutchgirls in the medals with a 16th-place time of 26:59.74.

Morgen Schmidt also placed 23rd in 29:39.40 while Jayden Hubbard ran her first high school cross country race in a 39th-place time of 33:30.35.

Edged out by Fatima atop the JV boys team standings, Owensville finished with 75 points while having three Dutchmen in the top 15.

Leading the JV Dutchmen trio of medalists was Westin Kramme with a 10th-place time of 20:45.08 followed by Braden Perkins (14th, 21:04.49) and Ty Price (15th, 21:15.59).

Also helping Owensville to a second-place finish in the JV boys team standings were Drake Dietrich (17th, 21:20.10), Kylen Menz (28th, 22:19.40), Bryce Kramme (31st, 22:56.23), Maddix Lebish (52nd, 27:38.16) and Ethan Blankenship (58th, 34:33.20).

Varsity action kicked off with the girls race and Limberg looking to improve on her seventh-place finish last Tuesday in Arnold.

Grabbing the lead early in the varsity girls race and never looking back, Limberg crossed the finish line first in a time of 19:51.15.

Sophomore Hannah Gehlert joined her in the medals with a 10th-place time of 22:00.26.

Abbie Gibson rounded out OHS’ varsity Dutchgirl trio with a 17th-place time of 22:41.09.

“Ilene, Hannah and Abbie worked really hard over the summer and it showed on the course today,” Candrl said.

Ending the day of racing was the varsity boys race at New Haven.

Senior Felix Guerrero led the Dutchmen with a seventh-place time of 1:45.76 followed by freshman Zach Holtmeyer in an eighth-place time of 17:57.13.

Also helping the Dutchmen place third as a team behind Fatima (33) and Pacific (70) were Ethan Harris (27th, 20:03.49), Cris Reyes (29th, 20:06.69), Kyle Bollman (31st, 20:16.37), Andrew Blankenship (32nd, 20:17.29) and Eli Graham (68th, 26:34.02).

“Overall, I thought all of our athletes ran very well with most of them running PRs (personal records) on a fair course,” Candrl said.

Both the OMS and OHS cross country squads will return to action this weekend at the Linn Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 9.

Owensville will also find out their class and district fate the morning of Friday, Sept. 8.