Hillsboro High School cross-country runner Emily Sechrist was the highest finisher Thursday at Sterling. Sechrist placed third, with a time of 16 minutes, 3.54 seconds.

Fellow freshman Karyn Leihy finished 13th, 17:34.36. Samantha Ens rounded out the girls field with a 44th-place finish, 20:31.26.

Junior Josh Richert was the highest finisher, 10th, for the boys team with a time of 18:04.66.

“The highlight of the day was the outstanding race of josh Richert,” Head coach Stuart Holmes said. “Josh has been training especially well the past few weeks and really persevered in the middle part of the race, continued to run smart, and used his speed toward the end for a strong race.”

It was the first time that Richert had run a better time than senior teammate Bret Mueller in a varsity race this season. Mueller finished 16th, 18:25.31.

Avery Franz and Jordan Bezdek finished back-to-back at 45th and 46th. Franz ran a time of 20:06.48 and Bezdek ran a time of 20:08.08. J.D. Schmidt finished four spots lower at 50, 20:18.41.

“The kids should feel good about the effort they gave on an extremely windy day — it was a tough day to run but our athletes competed hard,” Holmes said. “We knew that the times would be slower due to the conditions, but the team had one of its better days medal-wise, with eight runners earning a medal.”