SOUTH SIOUX CITY - East's Kaia Downs repeated as Girls' City Meet Cross Country champion finishing over a minute ahead of the field at Covington Links Thursday.
Downs won the race as a freshman in 2018 but will not have a chance to be the second four-time winner of the event in the 21st century as the meet was canceled due to adverse weather conditions last fall.
Downs covered the 5K course in 18:47.32 and was well-ahead of Grace Mahaney who led Bishop Heelan to the girls team title with a 19:58.54 finish.
Shelby Houlihan of East won the event all four of her high school years, spanning 2007-10.
Sophomore Mesuidi Ejerso of South Sioux City was the boys winner in 16:23.14 and led his team to the title. Freshman Natnael Kifle of North was runner-up in the boys race in 16:43.04.
SB-L was second in the boys team race and were led by Carlos Rodriguez who took third in 17:09.70. Moises Lupercio of South Sioux City was fourth in 17:12.45 and Ryan Campbell of East fifth in 17:16.32.
Teammated Juan Balderas (17:46.33) and Aidan Arneson (17:56.15) of South Sioux City completed the top four for the Cardinals in sixth and seventh place, respectively.
Isaac Bryan of Sergeant Bluff-Luton with eighth in 17:57.67 while Jose Gutierrez of North was ninth in 18:00.04 and Duan Nation of East 10th in 18:01.07
Emane Ahmed of South Sioux City was third in the girls race in 20:06.99 with Sydney Helt of East fourth in 20:32.47 and Sophia Karras of Sergeant Bluff-Luton fifth in 20:34.56.
Heelan's Brooklyn Stanley (20:38.22) was sixth and Maddie Demke (20:58.94) seventh while Jada Newberg (21:14.25) was ninth and Mia Conley (21:26.33) tenth to give the Crusaders half the spots in the top 10.
MONARCH BOYS 2ND: The Denison-Schleswig boys' cross country team finished in second place at the IKM-Manning Invitational on Thursday.
The Monarchs scored 62 points to finish in second place. IKM-Manning won the boys' team title with 31 points. OABCIG was fifth with 120 points.
Leo Flores led the Monarchs with a fifth-place finish in 17:38.88 and Ricky Ledesma was eighth in 17:53.55. Adolfo Vargas and Ethan Perrien finished in 14th and 15th, respectively, in 18:21.44 and 18:30.38.
OABCIG's Felix Casiano was seventh in 17:52.79 and Eric Sibenaller was 15th in 18:43.99. IKM-Manning's won the race in 16:34.28.
The Monarchs girls finished in third place with 70 points as Logan-Magnolia won with 22 points.
Claire Miller and Isabella Araujo were 10th and 11th for the Monarchs, respectively, in 21:44.16 and 21:53.10. Elizabeth Cary was 16th in 22:30.60.
