The Austin cross country team opened its season in hot and humid conditions at Meadow Greens Golf Course Tuesday.

The Packer girls took precaution in running in their first 5K as just three runners took the field. Abby Lewis took third place out of 78 runners, Nicole Justice finished 11th and senior Madison Overby did not finish the race.

Brockdon Lawhead led the Packer boys with an eighth place finish out of 130 runners. No team scores were kept for either team.

Lewis said the conditions were tough, but they could’ve been worse.

“It was pretty hot, but the breeze felt good. It wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be coming into it,” Lewis said. “It’s hard seeing your teammate get hurt. You want to stop and help them, but you know you’ve just got to keep going and finish strong.”

Justice, who is an eighth grader, picked up some solid experience running with the Packers at the Class AA state meet last season. She said she feels much more comfortable running in varsity meets this season.

“I know how to pace myself more and what I need to do for my time. Not running a 5K for awhile, I was pretty happy with my time today,” Justice said.

However, it was tough to for runners to keep their focus as plenty of runners were struggling with the humidity and the new 5K distance. Up until this year, girls ran 4K races in high school cross country meets in Minnesota.

“Seeing different people falling over and Madison [stopping] it’s kind of hard to keep going but you’ve just go to mentally keep going,” Justice said.

Austin boys results: Brockdon Lawhead (eighth, 17:55); Henry Hinchcliffe (25th, 19:02); Ben Walker (30th, 19:21); Mitchell Mayer (38th, 19:45); Evan McAlister (88th, 22:14)

Austin girls results: Abby Lewis (third, 20:06); Nicole Justice (11th, 22:17)