For the boys, Mattei set the bar low and nearly everyone that followed him went under it as well.

Mattei set a race goal of getting under 19 minutes and his time of 18:03 helped him to a 13th place finish overall, about 15 seconds away from a top 10 showing.

The result continues a steady and distinct climb by Mattei toward the front of the pack.

A sophomore runner, Mattei is proof of hard work paying huge dividends and when those dividends apparent, the hard work becomes easier, says Mattei.

"I'm seeing myself improving right now, so, since I'm going at this rate I want to do whatever I can to push it further."

Coach Paul Stieber and the athletes set goals for every meet as well as long term season goals.

For Mattei, who will enter the conference championship meet in two weeks with a clear shot at one of the all-Conference teams, even he didn't see this season unfolding at the beginning.

"I actually didn't imagine myself in that low 18's (18-minute) because last year I was in the low 20's actually. Now I see it coming more real."

The sophomore is something of an inspiration for the other team members who, to a man, have seen their times drop drastically this season as well.

Unfortunately, that hasn't translated into great team positions - yet, but the team members know they are improving and without a senior in the lineup, there is a two-year window or larger for this team to fully reach its potential.

Without senior leadership, Mattei said the runners have been feeding off of each other.

"I think this year we have been a lot closer. It's just, not only as teammates, but we help each other out a lot this year more so than last year, and I'm guessing years before - just helping each other out and giving each other advice."

Dakota Grimsled was next, his 19:11 time putting him well under the sub 20-minute race he wanted and junior Chad Marthaler enjoyed a breakthrough race, his time of 20:58 well under his goal time of 22-minutes.

David Biffert also set 22-minutes as his goal time and nailed it bang on.

Kory Peterson set a goal of 21:20 and went under that by 10 seconds. The weather played a role in a rough day for Billy Dani who crossed the line in 23:58.

In the junior varsity class, Jered Funmaker crossed the line 16th in 20:39, Bob Griep the next runner in 23:21, just six seconds in front of teammate Chris Gantz. Alex Whiteside rounded out the team, crossing the line in 24:31.

The Chiefs finally get a chance to play host on Saturday with the annual Dells Inviter courses out there as well.

The meet will start at about 10 a.m. Saturday and for the locals, will be the final tune-up before the Conference championship meet a week later at Adams-Friendship.

After that, the locals will move on to Cross Country Sectionals scheduled for Black River Falls on Oct. 25 where only the top teams and individual competitors will qualify to move on to the state championship meet a week later.