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Heather Edic had a breakthrough performance in topping Christi Schmitz for the first time this season, but it was Kailey Wilson — the only runner on the Kenny Lake High School team — who stole the glory Saturday at the Delta Invitational.

Wilson, a freshman who came out of obscurity by winning the highly competitive Palmer Invitational small schools race last weekend, ran a bit behind Lathrop High School’s Edic and North Pole’s Schmitz until the homestretch in Delta.

“(Wilson) was in third the whole way and just stayed composed,” Lathrop head coach Kevin Brinegar said. “It was like the last 50 meters that she zoomed by them. It was impressive.”

Wilson won the 5-kilometer race on a beautiful fall day in a speedy 19 minutes, 10 seconds. Edic shattered 20 minutes for the first time, finishing in 19:12 while Schmitz took third in 19:15.

“It was a big breakthrough,” Brinegar said of Edic’s run that vaulted her into third place on Lathrop’s all-time cross country list. “That was her goal, to break 20 and to do it by that much. ... It’s a fast course. We knew it was set up for sub-20.”

Led by freshman Sydney Stone in fourth place, the Malemutes scored the next four fastest times and handily won the girls meet with 19 points. North Pole (64), West Valley (65) and Eielson (101) were the other scoring teams.

The meet had a noticeably different atmosphere because West Valley’s varsity runners were absent as they attended the Lynx Invitational in Anchorage.

“We knew without West Valley (varsity) being there, at least on the guys’ side, that it was going to take our focus to still go out aggressively and push throughout the race,” Brinegar said. “So we were really happy they were able to do that.”

Pat Nugent led a Lathrop sweep of the top three spots in 16:51 as 25 of 32 Malemutes posted personal bests. Nathaniel Burrell, a home school student recently cleared to represent Lathrop, was runner-up in 17:16 and Zach Ginn took third in 17:29. Nick Best of Eielson and Gavin DeWilde of North Pole completed the top five. Lathrop topped the boys standings with 23 points, followed by West Valley (65), North Pole (69), Eielson (87), Hutchison (134) and Delta Junction (142).

The Wolfpack, meanwhile, performed well as the only Interior school at the Lynx Invitational. West Valley’s girls placed third and its boys were fifth.

“The course is on ski trails at Kincaid Park. It was fairly hilly, a lot of rolling terrain,” coach Dan Callahan said by telephone from Wasilla. “It’s certainly tougher than Palmer (the state championships course). Palmer is flat compared to this.”

Despite the challenging terrain, senior Werner Hoefler set a personal cross country best of 16:21 to place fourth.

“Werner is solidifying his spot as one of the best boys in the state,” Callahan said.

Also scoring for the Wolfpack were Sawyer Kisken in 27th, Jacob Remington in 29th, Sean Solie in 45th and Ealum Howe in 70th.

The top five West Valley girls all finished within 50 seconds of one another. Freshman Hannah Boyer led the way in 20:18, good for 12th place, with senior Kayla Teslow two seconds back in 15th. Malia Simpson was 27th, Marisa Rorabaugh took 33rd and Eliza Rorabaugh was 38th.

Kodiak edged Service by one point to win the boys meet, while defending state champion West Anchorage (92) held a comfortable margin over Service (112) and West Valley (119). Kodiak’s Trevor Dunbar (in a blazing 15:17) and Leah Francis of Juneau (18:57) were the individual winners.

Local schools will next attend an All Schools meet Friday evening in Salcha.