Nearly left without a meet over the weekend, Owensville Middle and High School cross country runners competed in the Bismarck Invitational at Mineral Area College in Farmington.

Once all six races were in the books, a total of 21 medals were earned by R-2 harriers.

“I’m proud of everyone the competed and earned a medal,” OHS head cross country coach Matt Candrl said. “We we’re thankful to get to run this weekend because we could’ve easily not had a meet to compete at.”

Starting the high school portion of racing with the varsity boys, Cameron O’Neal led the Dutchmen with a 13th-place time of 18:24.38.

Also in the medals for OHS were Jacob Breedlove (16th, 18:29.75) and Freddy Zheng (27th, 18:57.19).

For the varsity girls, MeKayla Gibson won the race in a time of 19:35.63 and set a new course record in the process as this was the first ever Bismarck Invitational.

“MeKayla had an awesome race,” Candrl said. “She made a move with 800 meters to go and never looked back.”

Joining Gibson in the medals for the varsity Dutchgirls were Katie Candrl (25th, 22:54.58), Kate Angell (22:57.38) and Kyah Weirich (29th, 22:59.93).

In the junior varsity races, three Dutchmen finished in the top 22 for medals including Ethan Harris (19th, 20:53.63), Noah Holtmeyer (20th, 21:05.39) and Tristan Davis (22nd, 21:19.76).

Peyton Weiland paced the JV Dutchgirls with a 19th-place time of 27:22.31 while Hayden Loeb (20th, 27:26.50), Khloe McCormick (26th, 29:11.18) and Katelyn Holtzer (29th, 29:31.60) also earned medals.

OMS results will be in next week’s Republican.