Area Cross Country Squads ran for the first time this season against other schools and many of our teams were at Albia. Knoxville and Twin Cedars competed in both teams season openers. The Knoxville boys placed 3rd behind winner Pella Christian and runner-up Pekin with 85 total points. Isaac Rankin was 2nd overall for the Panthers with a time of 17:06 while Cael Cook was the other Panther in the top ten with a 7th place finish in a time of 17:49. On the girls side, Knoxville placed 5th.

The Baker Sisters led the way with Janae placing 22nd in the time of 24:37, barely beating her younger sister Halle by two tenths of a second. For Twin Cedars, the Sabers did not have enough runners to score. The girls had two runners led by Shyanne Evans in 56th with a time of 29:25 and Jayden Weldon placed 69th with a time of 37:53. On the boys side, JoAngel Ibarra was the lone runner for the Sabers placing 35th in a time of 20:40. Knoxville heads to the Wayne Invitational on Thursday, while Twin Cedars is at Pekin today.