Seneca senior Lily Mueller entered Saturday’s La Salle County Cross Country Invitational with thoughts of where and how fast she wanted to run.

“I wanted to be out in front, and I wanted to break 20 (minutes),” Muller said. “I don’t think I quite reached the second goal there, but I felt like I ran smart and consistent.”

Mueller grabbed the lead inside the opening mile and eventually won the individual championship of the 3-mile girls race in a time of 20 minutes, 12.2 seconds.

“Our team lost a couple of really good seniors in Evelyn O’Connor and Natalie Misener from last year, so all season I’ve just tried to step up for my team and myself,” Mueller said. “I ran well, but I also have to take a step back and think about the times Eve and Nat had winning this race and just keep working to get closer to those times.”

In the boys race, Ottawa freshman Connor Medina pushed to the top spot nearly right from the starting gun and held on to the lead throughout, winning the race in a time of 16:09.2.

“I feel like I have mainly the same game plan each race, but with little tweaks here and there depending on different factors,” Medina said of his strategy entering the event. “Sometimes there is another runner I might try and hang with, or the course might be a bit hilly, or the weather can change my thought process.

“I went out way too fast today. My nerves got the best of me. My second mile was significantly slower than my first and they should be more consistent than that. With the postseason coming up, I know I’m going to be nervous for that, so I just need to find ways to get myself calmer so I can run start to finish at an even pace.”

As teams, the Ottawa girls (28) won the title for the fifth straight season, with Seneca (41) second and La Salle-Peru (63) third.

After Mueller, the all-county medalists included Mendota’s Lumen Setchell (2nd, 20:27.7); Ottawa’s Georgia Kirkpatrick (3rd, 20:33.1), Ailey Harstad (7th, 21:22.0), Leah Ferrantino (8th, 21:38.2), Riley Thrush (9th, 21.55.8) and Haley Sloan (10th, 22:04.9); Streator’s Luca Trammel (4th, 20:41.5); L-P’s Kiely Domyancich (5th, 20:54.1); and Seneca’s Lila Coleman (6th, 20:56.6).

“I know this is a good course to possibly PR on because my brother ran it,” said the freshman Setchell. “I was aiming for a time in the low 21s and felt that was a good goal for me today. I had fun today.

“At the start, I just wanted to stay within the top five. I know a couple of girls from the other teams from running in middle school, so they were ones I wanted to stay with.”

In the boys team standings, Ottawa (23) earned the championship, followed by Seneca (52), La Salle-Peru (72), Streator (102) and Mendota (108).

Following Medina on the all-county list were Cavaliers junior Gianni Verucchi (2nd, 16:34.1) and Griffin Hammers (5th, 17:32.9); Ottawa’s Atlas Brown (3rd, 17:13.5), Grant Smithmeyer (4th, 17:19.5), Aries Brown (6th, 17:38.8) and Kaleb Nimke (9th, 18:23.1); and Seneca’s Liam Baima (7th, 17.39.9), Callum Wright (8th, 17:40.9) and Brady Fort (10th, 18:23.5).

Streator’s Gabe Gutierrez (18:30.3) placed 11th, Mendota’s Aisaac Arteaga (18:38.0) finished 12th and Marquette’s Guy Runyon (19:15.7) crossed 17th to lead their respective squads.

“To be honest, when I step off the bus for a meet, I have the mindset that the race is going to be me versus me out there,” Verucchi said. “I don’t really worry about anything but running the race. I want to run the best I can. Having that mentality works for me.

“I went out a little faster than I should have. I was feeling tired after the first mile, but I was also trying as hard as I could to stay as close to (Medina) as I could. My overall pace wasn’t the best, but I felt like I ran a pretty good race, and I’m pretty happy with my time.”