The West Noble boys cross country team turned in a strong performance Saturday at the Panther Run Invitational hosted by Prairie Heights, finishing third in a competitive nine-team field. The Chargers finished with 91 points, trailing team champion Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger with 34 points and runner-up New Prairie with 58. West Noble finished ahead of Westview, Central Noble, Eastside, Lakeland, Garrett and Bishop Luers. Junior Graysen Ruch led the way for West Noble with an outstanding third-place overall finish. Ruch covered the course in 17:06.17, finishing behind only New Prairie's Braden Bachmann and Bishop Dwenger's Parker Miller. Junior Daniel Trinklein gave the Chargers another strong performance, placing 12th overall in 18:03.69. Senior Caleb Peterson followed in 18th place with a time of 18:22.09, giving West Noble three runners among the top 18 finishers. Junior Braxten Kurtz was West Noble's fourth runner across the line, placing 27th in 18:54.53. Junior Layne Targgart completed the Chargers' scoring five with a 34th-place finish in 19:29.49. Those five performances combined to give West Noble its third-place team total of 91 points. West Noble also received solid efforts from freshman Rigoberto Bonilla, who finished 41st in 20:01.95, and junior Xadrian Hofmeister, who was 45th in 20:23.14. Freshman Nelson Campos finished 50th in 20:30.56, while junior Andrew Kaiser crossed the line in 22:22.86. Sophomore Jose Mendoza finished in 26:23.66, and freshman Valentine Mendoza rounded out the Charger lineup in 28:01.55. The Chargers' third-place finish was highlighted by strong front-running from Ruch and a solid pack behind him, as West Noble placed all five of its scoring runners among the top 34 overall. It was another encouraging early-season performance for the Chargers against a quality invitational field.