The Canton-Galva cross-country team tuned up for the Heart of America league by competing at the Circle Invitational at Towanda on Thursday.

Coach Lyle Silsby said the afternoon was "exciting as well as frustrating" for the Eagles.

Leading the way for the varsity boys was Brandon Shannon, who finished the 5-kilometer course in a personal-best time of 18 minutes, 17 seconds, good for 21st place. But that left Shannon just out of medal contention.

Travis Myers and Joseph Unruh recorded personal-best times of 19:42 and 19:47, respectively.

"Our top three runners all ran personal best times," Silsby said. "But none managed to medal even with those efforts."

Silsby said the competition was good preparation for the HOA league meet.

"All of these guys are really running strong and building confidence," Silsby said.

Also competing for the Eagle boys were Riley Nigh (22:26) and Martin Falkenberg (23:26).

For the girls, Caitlin Nelson battled leg problems but still led the Eagles with a 24th-place finish in 13:45 over two miles.

She was followed by Alyssa Koehn (14:32), Leah Lawless (16:05), Lynn Volkman (16:07), Kelly Arendt (16:33) and Sheri Volkman (16:51).

"Alyssa and Kelly, I feel, can knock quite a bit of time off of their performances because both of them are battling ailments right now as well as Caitlin," Silsby said.

"All the girls had pretty good races and all finished ahead of or right at their times from last week.

"Hopefully we can get the girls all healthy for the league meet."

The HOA league meet, hosted by Peabody-Burns, will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday.