Pierce County conquest of Griak Invitational

• River Falls HS boys cross country team

The River Falls High School boys team poses with the first place trophy they won at the Griak Invitational.
• Spring Valley's Breanna Colbenson

Breanna Colbenseon way out in front during the Maroon high school girls reace.
• Hudson's Katie Wetzstein

Katie Wetzstein congratulates a fellow place winner at the Griak Invitational.
• UW-River Falls women's cross country team

The UW-River Falls cross country team just before the start of the race.

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FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. - Spring Valley's Breanna Colbenson and the River Falls boys cross country team were winners at the Roy Griak Invitational Saturday.

Colbenson won the Maroon Girls High School race in her first-ever Griak Invitational. She crossed the finish line well ahead of any of her competitors in a time of 18:47.

Colbenson's Spring Valley girls' team placed 24th out 45 schools competing in the meet. St. Croix Central finished 41st and Somerset was 44th.

River Falls won the Maroon Boys High School race with a team score of 128 points out of the 53 teams competing. The Wildcats' Trent Powell finished eighth individually in 17:03 and teammate Mitch Lennan finished 13th in 17:15.

New Richmond placed 45th, Somerset 50th and St. Croix Central 51st in the same race.

The top 20 individual athletes were honored in each race along with the top three teams.

Another Rivertowns area runner who placed in the top 20 was Hudson's Katie Wetzstein who finished 12th in 19:18. Hudson finished 15th in the team standings and River Falls was 32nd. Over 44 school competed in the Gold race. Hudson's boys team finished 45th in the Gold Division boys' race.

In the collegiate races, Ellsworth's Morgan Place finished 10th in the Maroon Division II women's race in 22:34 running for the University of Minnesota-Duluth. UW-River Falls finished 16th in the Maroon Division III team standings out of 32 teams competing.

There was more Wisconsin dominance collegiately as UW-Eau Claire women the Maroon Division III team title and UW-Oshkosh's Christy Cazzola finished first in 22:06. UW-Oshkosh, UW-La Crosse and UW-Platteville were 1-2-3 in the men's Maroon Division III race and UW-Eau Claire finished fifth.

Tags: cross country, river falls, spring valley, sports, sports, prep