The Prior Lake cross country teams are off and running.

Both teams competed in the two-mile Irish Invitational in Rosemount Aug. 30 with junior Gabe Smit leading the way for the boys squad. The Laker girls were led by their youth with three seventh-graders in their top four.

Smit finished fourth overall with a time of 9:57.2 to help the Lakers finish sixth out of 29 schools in the team standings with 160 points. Tenth-ranked White Bear Lake won (77), followed by No. 2 Eden Prairie (107), No. 5 St. Paul Highland Park (109), No. 6 Minnetonka (123) and Eagan (154).

On the girls side, the Lakers were 11th out of 24 teams with 309 points. Fourth-ranked Stillwater won (53), followed by Minnetonka (56), No. 5 Eden Prairie (114), St. Paul Highland Park (120) and No. 11 White Bear Lake (134).

Seventh-graders Brooke Evenson and Layla Vennick were the Laker girls' top-two finishers taking 38th (12:38.2) and 52nd (12:57.2), respectively. Junior Olivia Zastrow finished 53rd (12:57.6), followed by seventh-grader Maggie Hoen in 75th (13:30.9).

Junior Katherine Kaisersatt was 91st for Prior Lake (13:30.9), followed by senior Adeline Hiveley in 92nd (13:31.1) and seventh-grader Kate Anderson in 99th (13:38.7).

For the Prior Lake boys, junior Kyle Nordling was the team's next-best finisher behind Smit taking 24th (10:25.1), while junior Magnus O'Connor was 31st (10:34.8) and junior Blake VanderWiede ended up 50th (10:49.2).

Senior Samuel Klinger was 51st for the Lakers (10:49.4), followed by senior Mason Clemensen in 83rd (11:08.9) and junior John Meagher in 85th (11:09.6).

The first 5,000-meter competition for both Prior Lake teams is Sept. 5 at Gale Woods in Minnetrista starting at 4 p.m.