Laura Thompson

PIPESTONE — Fairmont’s Laura Thompson and Macy Hanson collected more individual hardware at Tuesday’s Big South Conference cross country meet, but this time, teammates Carys Gudahl and Gavin Artner joined the Cardinals’ record-setting duo among the upper echelons.

Once again, Thompson and Hanson easily eclipsed the 19-minute barrier to pack a 1-2 individual showing to earn all-league big-school accolades, while Carys Gudahl and Artner each broke into the top 15 overall to garner all-conference honorable mention status in Pipestone.

Thompson captured both the big-school bracket — consisting of Fairmont, Marshall, Waseca, St. Peter and Worthington — girls’ championship as well as the overall 5K crown with a time of 18:12.24.

Hanson crossed the finish line in the big schools’ competition in second place with an impressive time of 18:27.5 to finish in third place overall behind small schools’ gold medalist Tenley Nelson of Luverne (18:13.01).

“Laura and Macy just keep rewriting the record books as they ran the top two times ever for our girls program in a 5K conference meet today,” said legendary Fairmont head coach Bob Bonk, whose girls lineup placed second with 49 points to Marshall’s first-place total of 30 in the big schools race. “But maybe even more important, Carys ran a good race today, and she and our other girls cut the gap a bit today.

“It looks like the girls are right at their peak now and it’s perfect timing.”

Carys Gudahl placed 13th overall by running a 21:03.54 for Fairmont, while Audrina Suckow and Emma Gudahl rounded out the big schools’ runner-up’s counting marks. Suckow claimed 19th individually with a time of 22:38.6, while Emma Gudahl contributed a time of 22:53.31 to pocket 21st overall.

Eleanor Hamlet and Lily Higgins completed Fairmont’s effort by claiming 22nd (22:57.76) and 29th (24:36.24), respectively.

Nelson’s winning ways paced Luverne’s first-place small schools score of 22 to easily outdistance Redwood Valley’s runner-up total of 56.

Aubrey Woodwick claimed 23rd place overall with a time of 23:03.07 to top Blue Earth Area’s seventh-place score of 165 in the small schools competition.

Calli Ferguson placed 26th in 23:22.3 for the Bucs, Sidney Eitzmann posted a time of 23:51.68 to net 32nd overall, Lola Lundquist nailed down 42nd in 25:09.94, while Lauren Bleess chipped in 46th place in 26:39.87 to cap the counting marks.

Aubrey Hueper (26:54.19, 48th) and Elizabeth Jacobson (27:41.21, 50th) completed BEA’s performance.

Artner literally paced Fairmont’s big schools score of 87 to finish in third in the team portion of the meet behind champion Worthington (16) and second-place Marshall (47).

Artner captured 11th place overall to net honorable mention all-league status with a team-leading time of 17:56.84, while teammate Will Niestrath garnered 18th individually with a time of 18:22.81.

Selvin Forsythe, Cooper Gudahl and Ben Moeller reeled off 21st, 22nd and 23rd places, respectively, to round out Fairmont’s packed performance. Forsythe posted a time of 18:37.48, Gudahl tallied an 18:42.96, while Moeller supplied an 18:44.24.

Brier Lenor and Landon Weber capped the Cardinals’ overall effort by placing 25th (19:16.61) and 29th (20:03.24), respectively.

Fanuel Wolday (16:29.29), Mikele Walu (17:02.38), Ofbeka Morke (17:05.36) and Alec Langerud (17:13.81) produced the big school boys meet’s top four individual times, respectively, to help Worthington win the championship by 31 points over Marshall.

Ryan Pierson captured second individually with a time of 16:40.81 to steer St. James Area to the small schools boys crown at 56 — only two points ahead of runner-up Luverne’s 58. Will Ahrens won the small schools title by crossing the finish line in 16:36.58 for Redwood Valley, which claimed third at 74.

Angel Martinez netted 41st overall in 19:58.91 to top Blue Earth Area’s seventh-place team total of 214 in the small schools division.

Devin Haase (46th, 21:03.68), Luca Bucksch (47th, 23:11.65), Seth Mathews (49th, 24:07.5), Aiden Donahue (50th, 23:08.54) and Marcus Eckles (51st, 24:27.5) capped the Bucs’ effort.

Fairmont competes in the Section 2AA Meet at 1 p.m. next Tuesday at Gale Woods Farms in Minnetrista, while Blue Earth Area plays host to the Section 2A Meet at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, at Riverside Town & Country Club near Blue Earth.