Members of the Hillsboro High School Cross Country team won the girls and boys junior varsity races Saturday at the J.K. Gold Classic in Augusta.

“Since almost all the other schools were large 5A and 6A teams we ran everyone but Bret in JV races,” coach Stuart Holmes said.

Freshman Karyn Leihy set a new Hillsboro record time of 17 minutes, 25 seconds to win the girls 4k JV race. Leihy bested the time of 18:03 set by Heidi Schroeder in 2008. Senior Samantha Ens finished 24th with a time of 20:10. Senior Amy Bartel finished 35th with a time of 21:42. Erin Wiebe finished 43rd with a time of 22:25.

Junior Josh Richert won the JV boys race with a time of 18:45.

“I hope it will be a breakthrough race for him,” Holmes said. “Josh and Karyn, like almost all of our cross-country team members, had a good summer of training and prepared themselves to have a successful season.”

Sophomore Avery Franz finished sixth with a time of 19:42.

“He did a great job in the last 600 meters of the race moving from 12th to earn the sixth-place medal,” Holmes said.

In his first high school race, Dylan Hill finished 16th with a time of 20:31. Sophomore Daniel Gray finished 17th with a time of 20:35. J.D. Schmidt placed 18th with a time of 20:45.

“Also running a gutsy race was J.D. who continued running and finished with a personal record by about minute despite having a bloody nose during the race,” Holmes said.

Tyler Funk and Jordan Bezdek rounded out the Hillsboro JV runners. They finished 34th and 35th, respectively, with times of 22:10 and 22:11.

The Trojans finished second as a team for the boys JV race.

Running later in the morning in the heat, Bret Mueller placed 23rd, 19:06, in the varsity race.