By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

The Warriors’ cross-country team rediscovered their form at the Heart of America league meet Thursday.

After struggling at last week’s race, Marion returned stronger, with all four runners placing in the top-50.

Braxton Schuh had the team’s performance of the meet, running a personal record of 22:31.0. As a freshman who started the season with a 25-minute 5K, he smashed expectations in his first season.

Bethany Grimmett finished six seconds behind her fastest time, coming in at 29:11.1. The previous race, at Eureka, was the third time she came in above 35:00. In each race that followed, she posted a time below 32:00.

Colton Boudreaux came in at 22:27.0, his slowest time of the year. Despite the higher time, he managed a 49th-place finish, one ahead of Schuh.

Boudreaux’s running was strongly impacted by illness, coach Grant Thierolf said.

Heidi Grimmett cruised to a seventh place finish, running a 21:11.2. The time is her new best and marks her second 5K under 21:20. She finished each of the seven races in the top 10, with one first-place.

The middle school runners ran their final race of the year. Tristen Dye finished in second place in the eighth grade race. His time of 12:58.9 was eight-tenths of a second from his best race. Christopher Berry had a personal record of his own, coming in fourth at 13:26.9.

In the one-mile race for seventh graders, Quenton Taylor had his best time, coming in at 7:23.0. Gavin Wasmuth came in third at the season finale, logging a 6:08.4.

With one meet remaining for varsity, Marion looks to be peaking at the right time. They run at the regional meet Saturday, which will determine who continues to state.