Washington Demon cross country started the new season Saturday at the Anamosa Invitational, and the Washington girls got things rolling in the right direction with a second-place finish as a team.

Not only were the Demons runner-up as a team, finishing only five points shy of the champions from Solon, but junior Iris Dahl was also the individual runner-up, running the team’s top time of 21 minutes 15 seconds.

Senior teammate Lauren Horak finished eighth by crossing the finish line in 22:21, while Kendall Hinrichsen was 13th in 22:38 and fellow senior Quincy Griffis clocked in at 23:18 to finish 17th.

Sophomore Emma Horak rounded out the the top 20 in just under 24 minutes, while seniors Alyvia Anderson and Isabella Lujan also ran top-30 times for Washington.

The Demon boys finished fifth in the team scoring and were paced by senior Tyler Alderton, whose time of 18:01 was good enough for fourth place. Junior Andrew Rees took 10th by crossing the finish line in 18:44, while sophomore Ethan Hotchkiss and freshman Parker Tschantz also ended up in the top 30 for Washington.