EBEN — The Superior Central girls took care of their home meet for the second straight year here Saturday morning, retaining the title in the Superior Central Invitational high school cross country meet with 32 points.

Runner-up North Central scored 81, while Rapid River and Norway shared third place with 87 each.

“Our depth definitely came through,” Cougars’ coach Holly McDonnald said. “This is exciting to see but not surprising. We would have liked to have Munising here. I like to see the two Alger County schools together. I think we help each other. We like the competition.”

The Manistique boys were crowned champions with 50 points, followed by the host Cougars and North Central tying with 77 apiece.

SC freshman Kiera McDonnald earned her first girls race victory, covering the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) course in 23 minutes, 12 seconds. She was followed by Norway freshman Lauren Adams (23:44) and North Central’s Hope Varoni (24:25) on a sunny and mild day.

“I start slower and try to pass people during the race,” Kiera McDonnald said. “It feels good to know I can take first.

“This is special, especially being able to do it on our home course. It also feels real good to win as a team. Our team is growing.”

Manistique senior Grant Mason won the boys’ race, matching his season-best in 19:22. He was followed by Gwinn sophomore Thomas Jenkins (19:51) and North Central’s Wes Knauf (20:18).

“Some of the guys started pretty fast,” Mason said. “I’ve been working on hills in practice, which helped me today because there were some decent hills out there. We had perfect conditions today. It didn’t rain, and it was nice and cool.”

Jenkins and Knauf recorded personal-best times.

“I’m very happy with that,” Jenkins said. “I wanted to keep a good pace and not overstretch myself. I like the course. There were some good challenges out there. There were some muddy spots.

“This is amazing. I was just trying to get into the top five.”