The Wayland boys’ varsity cross-country team took a respectable third place Thursday in the Delton Kellogg Invitational.

The Wildcats finished with 85 team points, behind Covenant Christian and Kalamazoo Christian in the 11-team field.

Perhaps the biggest reason for the much-improved overall performance from 24 hours earlier, was a breakout effort by sophomore James Butler, who eclipsed the 20-minute mark for the first time to take 28^th individually.

Meanwhile, junior Devin Weaver led the Wayland pack by finishing sixth in his season best of 17:54.95 over the five-kilometer course. Travis Koon was 14^th in 18:35.23, freshman Dylan Pallett continued his strong outings by taking 17^th in 18:39.69 and sophomore Henry Oudbier was 20^th in 18:58.28.

The Lady Wildcats had a tougher time, tying for fifth with host Delton with 139 points. Hopkins grabbed fourth placed among the 10 teams with 135. Covenant Christian and Kalamazoo Christian went 1-2.

Wildcat junior Olivia Barabas was individual runner-up with a time of 20:48.5 and sophomore Helena Kerber was fifth in 21:17.75 for the Lady Vikings, followed by freshman Kambria Moored in 16^th, Neveah Helderop 32^nd, Jaeden Harshberger 55^th and Abigail Zalis 66^th.

Rounding out Wayland’s scoring were sophomore Elliot Antel 30^th, Emily Tuinstra 40th and Mackenzie VanderWeide 41^st.