ABOVE: Cooper Gudahl races towards the finish line during the Early Bird Invite at the Fairmont High School practice field. Gudahl earned fourth for the Cardinals.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont High School cross-country team opened the season at the Early Bird Invite on Friday, securing second- and fourth-place team finishes from the boys and girls, respectively.

“This is the first meet of the season where you race kind of an off distance, where you race a 4K compared to the high school sides standard 5K,” Fairmont High School cross-country coach Andrew Moeller said. “It’s kind of a chance to ease them into it instead of pumping right up to the normal race distance.”

Starting with the boys, the team impressed Moeller and his coaching staff, placing three runners in the top 15 and achieving several competitive finishes from the rest of the pack.

Leading the charge for the Cardinals was senior Cooper Gudahl, earning fourth with a time of 13:58.8, falling nine seconds behind the first-place winner.

Sophomores Carmyne Hecht and Evan Reyelts were nearly inseparable the entire way, earning top-three finishes for Fairmont while placing 10th and 11th. Both runners’ times were separated by just 2.1 seconds.

“I was really excited to see where Carmyne and Evan finished up after the way they worked together during the race,” Moeller said. “Cooper has kind of been our leader the past year, so that wasn’t much of a surprise to see him where he was.”

Freshman Holden Junkermeier, junior Jonas Krist, sophomore Michael Hamley, and junior Leon Yang rounded up the seven finishers on the boys’ side, each finishing in the top 30 for the Cardinals.

“We have been talking a lot about not just being in the race, but actually racing throughout the race, being present and aggressive throughout it,” Moeller said. “I feel like I saw everybody being out there and putting themselves in uncomfortable spots and keep on getting point after point.”

Moeller was ultimately excited with the production he received from his girls’ team. With a unit that is riddled with underclassmen, the Cardinals got a handful of solid races from some new faces to the varsity lineup.

Headlining the top finishes from the girls were sophomore Brooklyn Stone and eighth-grader Delaney Klug. The pair finished 22nd and 23rd, with just tenths of a second separating the two.

Sophomore Avery Steuber, senior Kendra Blomster, freshman Natalie Griffey, and junior Reese Fenske were the next four finishers for Fairmont, each cracking a placement in the 30s with very similar times.

“There really wasn’t a spot where we had just a single Fairmont girl; there was always a couple or two or three of them together,” Moeller said. “I really like that in terms of being able to work together in races. Really excited to see how we worked together as a team. While it wasn’t quite the same front-end power we had on the guys’ side, to see them pack up like that, you also do well in meets that way.”

While the results from the competition were positive to see from a coach’s perspective, Moeller knows his team can still develop and grow as the season moves forward. One thing he looks to work on in practice is simply adding miles to his athletes’ resumes.

“The way we have so many new people on the team this year that don’t have a whole lot of background in running,” Moeller said. “So maybe not a ton of mileage in the summer, as well as the lack of racing experience. As we keep on getting more fit and keep on getting better at racing, we are just going to keep on seeing those performances drop.”