BUCYRUS — Bucyrus junior Karter Boggs has learned a lot about running in the last year.

As a sophomore, Boggs said he started out way too fast in the Bucyrus Cross Country Invitational and finished fourth.

That wasn’t the case this year.

Boggs went out at a much more manageable pace and ran away with the win at the Bucyrus Elks Invitational, finishing with a personal best time of 16:12.20.

“Going out at 2:05 last year definitely broke me,” Boggs said. “I was just a sophomore and I wanted to go out quickly. And that just zapped my legs for the remainder of the run.

“Today, I had a pace of 2:20 or 2:25 and then just held that the whole time,” he added.

The Bucyrus star led the Redmen to a second-place finish in the boys’ race. Upper Sandusky won with 50 points while the Redmen finished with 57.

Buckeye Central was eighth with 174 points and Wynford placed ninth with 236.

On the girls’ side, Lucas’ Chloe Sturtz won with a time of 19:34.10 and Upper Sandusky won the team title with 40 points. Buckeye Central finished fourth with 69 points.

Sturtz said that she made her move in the final third of the race.

“I felt pretty good, and I thought ‘I felt pretty good, why not challenge the girl in first?’ Sturtz said.

“I stayed on her hip right until the middle of the third mile. That’s when I made my move.”

She finished three seconds better than Upper Sandusky’s Hope Morris and 10 seconds ahead of Cardington’s Magi Hallabrin.

Buckeye Central’s Nevaeh Metzger was the top county finisher at 21:40.

Boggs beat Ridgedale’s Brogan Weston by 13 seconds and Elyria’s Gavin Smith by 28 seconds.

“I was second for the first two and then I took over. I thought this was too slow for the kind of running I wanted to do,” Boggs said.

“I got out conservative but not too crazy and then maintained the first mile. Pushed it a little bit in the first two miles and closed the last mile.

“Overall, I’m very proud of myself and the team, I think we have a lot of potential this year,” he added.

The Redmen got strong performances from their top five runners.

Charlie Miley placed ninth (17:46.60), A.J. Griffin was 15th (18:10.20), Carter Bierce was 17th (18:16.30) and Kyle Pifher was 32nd (19:20.30).