NEWCASTLE – The middle school cross country team began their second season on Saturday at the Newcastle Invite held at Mallo Camp.

Maci Lyons finished in first place overall in a time of 10 minutes, 48 seconds for the 2500-meter course. This time was six seconds faster than last year’s time.

Aalyiah Pavone finished in 8th place in the eighth-grade division in a time of 13:21, which was over a minute and a half improvement from last year.

Hazel Gaukel ran her first cross country race in 13:27 to place 9th in the eighth-grade division.

The lone sixth-grade girl was Avery Johnson in her first race. She finished at 15:30.

The two middle school boys in sixth grade both competed well. Cooper Skeen ran the course in 15:28 while Paul Kruse finished in 16:06.

Coach Lyons was very impressed with how the first-year runners ran the course well for not having any experience with cross country and have a great starting point. Pavone and Lyons had some nice improvements from the same course from the previous year.

The runners will compete in Gering on Friday.