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Girls Team Standings

1. Webster City 36; 2. Mason City Newman 56; 3. Central Springs 71; 4. Garner-Hayfield 98; 5. Osage 112; 6. Hampton-Dumont 141; 7. Clarion-Goldfield 229.

Webster City Girls Results

3. Breanne Wagner 16:06; 4. Brenna Paukert 16:48; 7. Mikaela Pruismann 17:06; 11. Alicia Long 17:11; 12. Morgan Moline 17:16; 13. Sarah Perin 17:17; 23. Erin Hunt 18:20.

Boys Team Standings

1. Garner-Hayfield 38; 2. Webster City 50; 3. Osage 64; 4. Hampton-Dumont 137; 5. Clarion-Goldfield 145; 6. Mason City Newman 190.

Webster City Boys Results

4. Alex Lamp 17:00; 6. Matt Severe 17:56; 10. Austin Elm 18:16; 12. Jacob Clabaugh 18:23; 18. Mason Hedeen 18:58; 27. Andrew Laird 19:33; 31. Corey Woodhouse 19:58.

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HAMPTON - The competition didn't matter. Neither did the course. All that mattered to the Webster City cross country teams was one thing - they just wanted to run.

Scheduled to compete at the Fort Dodge Invitational on Thursday, the Lynx quickly changed their plans after being informed that Dodger officials had decided to postpone the meet because of the wet grounds at Lakeside Golf Course. Head coach Tony Bussan immediately got on the phone and got his teams back into the Hampton-Dumont Invite, a meet that Webster City was originally slated to compete in last Thursday until it was pushed back a week because of the weather.

Confused? Probably not as much as the Lynx athletes were when they got the news at about 1 p.m. on Thursday. But it didn't stop them from turning in arguably their best performances of the season at Maynes Grove Park.

The Class 3A 11th-ranked Webster City girls' squad had six of its seven runners place among the top 13 en route to an easy team championship total of 36 points, 20 points in front of runner-up and 1A ninth-ranked Mason City Newman.

The Lynx boys put up 50 points to finish in the runner-up slot behind Garner-Hayfield (38).

The Lynx had not competed in more than a week, and had they not run on Thursday then they would have gone more than two weeks without a meet leading into Tuesday's North Central Conference meet in Algona.

"It was extremely important that we find a meet," Bussan said. "There was no way I wanted to go all the way to the conference meet with 2 1/2 weeks of no meets. It's a tremendous credit to our kids because they did a fantastic job of maintaining their focus on a completely different course than what they were expecting at Fort Dodge."

Senior Breanne Wagner ran a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 6 seconds to finish in the bronze medal position in the girls' race. Rookie teammate Brenna Paukert was the next runner to cross the finish line, but she was well back and finished in 16:48.

Paukert led a pack of Lynx runners - five in all - that were separated by just 29 seconds. Mikaela Pruismann was also a top-10 finisher, sprinting into the chute at the finish line seventh in 17:06. Alicia Long clocked in at 17:11 to place 11th, and on her heels were teammates Morgan Moline (17:16) and Sarah Perin (17:17) in 12th and 13th.

"Our girls just ran super," Bussan said. "For Breanne, that's the kind of performance we need out of our team leader going into conference and (regionals)."

As he has done all season, Alex Lamp paced Webster City's boys' squad in its silver-medal showing. Lamp cruised into the fourth-place slot in 17:00. Matt Severe and Austin Elm raced into the top 10 as well; Severe was sixth in 17:56, Elm 10th in 18:16.

"The boys had our best team race to date, and that's a great way to prepare for conference," Bussan said. "Matt had his best race of the year."

Jacob Clabaugh's time of 18:23 garnered him the 12th-place slot and Mason Hedeen placed 18th in 18:58.

Tuesday's NCC meet from Whittemore Golf Club in Algona will get underway at 5 p.m.