MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County boys varsity and junior varsity cross country teams took first-place finishes in Saturday’s Westover Invitational in Albany.

The varsity Packers had 84 points to finish well ahead of Northside of Columbus, which had 111.

Lee County was third with 114.

The Packers got a seventh-place finish from Matthew Rakestraw and a ninth-place finish from Mark Breedlove.

James Fagan was 17th; Jaziel Rodriguez, 22nd; Rigaberto Mendoza, 29th; Marco Lorenzo, 49th; Van Walcher, 52nd; and Kale Hopper, 69th.

The JV Packers had 21 points. Lee County was second with 43 points and Jordan was third with 60.

Colquitt County’s Harrison Powell took first place in the junior varsity boys race.

He was followed by Logan Wright, who was fifth; Amicha Carroll, sixth; Trystan Johnson, 12th; Landon Wiggins, 17th; and Willis McCranie, 19th.

“The boys results were a nice reward for the work they have been putting in the last few weeks,” coach Mell Wier said.

St. Anne Pacelli Catholic won the varsity girls race, with Central of Phenix City, Ala., placing second and Northside of Columbus coming in third.

Matti Rigsby was the first Lady Packer to finish, placing 24th.

Also competing for the Colquitt County girls were Chelsea Moreno, who was 33rd; Yarely Zuniga, 39th; Eidi Gachuz, 44th; Yukari Carranza, 45th; Jaelyn Wier, 59th; and Vanessa Torres, 61st.

In the junior varsity girls race, Melissa Sebastian was 14th and Leticia Garcia was 15th.

“The girls team continues to build on their early-season success where they had top-3 finishes at the Lee County Invitational and at the Thomas University Invitational,” Wier said.

The teams are getting into racing shape after spending the first part of the season working on their strength, Wier said.

“All the runners ran their best races this season, not only in terms of their times, but in the execution of the plan we had for the meet,” Wier said.

“The total team times were about a minute per runner faster than we’ve run in other races this season, which is a great sign as we are getting into the last few weeks before the region and state meets.”

Colquitt will go to the Bleckley County Invitational on Thursday and will play host to a meet at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, October 10, at Packer Park.

The Packers and Lady Packers also will play host to the Region 1-7A meet on Wednesday, Oct. 26.