Erin Philbeck placed fourth overall in the girls race and Alex Bowns placed sixth overall in the boys race in the Ballard High School cross country team's Sept. 23 meet.

Philbeck and Bowns have led the Beavers in all three meets this season.

Philbeck finished the 3.05-mile course in 20:46. The rest of the scorers for the Ballard girls were 16th-place Natalie White, 20th-place Alyson Fromm, 24th-place Rochelle Erskine and 31st-place Hannah Murphy.

According to Paul Merca with the Ballard cross country team, coach Bruce Drager decided to have the girls team, except for Philbeck, take the race easy in preparation for the more important Bellevue Invitational Sept. 26.

Bowns finished with a time of 16:52. The rest of the scorers for the Ballard boys were ninth-place Aaron Hamilton, 12th-place Jesse Bengtsson, 24th-place Victor Bailey and 26th-place Ryan Kelly.

The meet took place at Kamiakin Junior High School, and Ballard faced runners from Juanita, Issaquah, Redmond and Woodinville.

The Bellevue Invitational takes place at 4 p.m. on Sept. 26 at Lake Sammamish State Park.