THREE RIVERS – Maddie Rodts helped the Niles girls’ cross country team to a third place finish on Tuesday at the Three Rivers Big Hill Invitational.

Rodts finished second overall with a time of 21:19.
The Lady Wildcats’ Morgan Stuut, the defending Wolverine Conference champion, was the overall winner with a time of 20:48.

Marshall won the event with a combined time of 1:57:45.
Three Rivers was second, Niles third, Paw Paw fourth and Constantine fifth.

The Lady Vikings had a combined time of 2:04:56.

The event was divided up into a pair of races – one for first and second year runners and one for the third and fourth year runners.
Anne Tyler finished with a time of 24:01, while was good for ninth place overall.

Alex Haimbaugh ran a 25:25, Bridgett Carpenter a 26:43, Shannon McKeel a 27:28, Maureen Craig a 27:29 and Ava McKeel a 28:40.

“It was a tough, hilly course with high heat and humidity, which made for slow times across the board,” Niles coach Dan VandenHeede said. “It was the type of race that really showed who had put in the miles over the summer and could handle the tough conditions. Those who had weren’t slowed down as much. Overall, a good start to the season and most of the girls are coming in with a much better base than last year.”

Marshall also won the boys’ race with a time of 1:42:00.

Bronson was second, Three Rivers third, Union City fourth and Centreville fifth.
Niles finished seventh with a time of 1:56:10.

Mark Calhoun led Niles with a fifth place finish and Sam VandenHeede a sixth place finish. The two ran 19:31 and 19:38 respectively.

Anthony Horvath finished with a 20:29, Kyle Ballge a 27:44 and Barry Weddle a 28:48.