AMBOY – Bureau Valley sophomore Regan Weidner would have liked to win the Amboy Columbus Day Invitational on Monday, but she hopes she has bigger fish to fry down the road.
Weidner finished third with a time of 18 minutes, 1 second over the 2.9-mile Shady Oaks Country Club course. It was an improvement of 19 seconds from her time a year ago, which earned her a 13th-place medal.
This time, she finished behind just two runners, winner Maria Brauer of PORTA (17:48) and runner-up Chloe Marshinski of Westmont (17:53).
Weidner held an early lead, but was passed up two-thirds of the way by Brauer and Marshinski.
"It would have been awesome to win," Weidner said. "Once you get into the lead, it puts it in your mind that you can win. I didn't hold on, which is kind of upsetting, but they were really good runners. I'm still working hard in practice, though, and when we get to state, hopefully I can get past these girls."
The win was the first for Brauer, a freshman whose previous best finish in an invitational was second place at Rochester. She didn't know much about her closest pursuers, as this was the first time their teams have crossed paths, but she was relieved to hang on.