CAYUGA, Ind. — Competition is a great motivator.

On Tuesday afternoon, the cross country teams and individuals in the North Vermillion Invitational got a look at some new competition.

That’s because there were nine Indiana schools and four from schools from Illinois battling. It’s one of the few meets on either side of the border to feature both states.

“It’s always a little different for us when we come over here,’’ said Oakwood/Armstrong-Potomac coach Tim Lee, whose boys team took second. “It’s different competition, and it’s a different distance for us. It’s hard for us to mark up who we have to beat. We know Bismarck and Schlarman, but the other schools are completely new to us.’’

Schlarman’s Jesse Hahne cruised to the title in the boys race, covering the 5K course (3.1 miles) in 16 minutes, 29 seconds.

“I don’t think there is any more perfect weather than what we had today,’’ he said. “I felt great running this race. This is probably the best that I’ve felt after a race all season.’’

That showed as Hahne beat his nearest competitor, Riverton Parke’s Riley Stohler by 1 minute, 8 seconds and Seeger’s Levi Talbert was third with a time of 17:44.

“The competition is the hardest thing about this meet,’’ Hahne said. “You don’t know where any of these other kids stand and you have to play it smart when you are running against them.

“You don’t want to go out too fast and you don’t want to go out too slow.’’

Hahne said he got pushed, but the pace was right where he wanted it to be.

“I went a little slower in the first mile than I’ve been running recently,’’ he said. “I think that’s why my splits were more even.’’

The team title went to Notre Dame de La Sallette, who had all five of their runners finish between 11th and 25th, scoring 90 points and Oakwood/A-P was second with 96 points.

Leighton Elliott was the top runner for the Comets with a fourth-place finish, while Brandon Divan was sixth.

“I thought the boys had a chance. We didn’t run as well as we did last Thursday, if we do that, we win this race,’’ Lee said. “This has been a good season. The kids have worked hard and I have good leadership. Divan and Elliott are running super, their times are good.’’

In the girls race, Fountain Central freshman Morgan Grubb continued her great start with a win by 32 seconds over Tayler Hutson of Crawfordsville.

Grubb completed the 5K course is 21:05, which she said is her personal best.

“I had a huge lead for almost the entire race,’’ she said. “This is probably as good as it could be for me right now.’’

Grubb said running against new competition from Illinois wasn’t that big of a deal for her.

“I was just looking forward to beating everyone that I ran against,’’ she said.

But, Grubb admitted that her success is a surprise to her.

“I never thought I would win as many races as I have,’’ she said. “I thought when the year started that I would just be in the middle of the pack.’’

Taking third in the girls race was North Vermillion’s Taylor Turchi with a personal best of 21:43.

Next was a trio of Seeger girls led by Cara Fowler, as they helped the Patriots easily claim the team title.

“The girls ran really well. We came here last year, won it and almost all of those girls are back,’’ Seeger coach Miles Stucky said. “My top runners went out a little fast, but we are still running better than we did last year.’’

Stucky said that every meet is a learning experience and he really likes that his team is getting to face different competition.

Earlier this year, Seeger ran against a bunch of Indianapolis schools at Ben Davis and the Patriots will run against some of the top area Illinois teams on Saturday at Spartan Invitational at St. Joseph-Ogden.

“A lot of the meets we do in a year, we see the same competition,’’ Stucky said. “It’s nice to see the different competition and Saturday’s meet really motivates our team.’’

That’s because the Spartan Invitational is a road race and a shorter distance.

“They get a quicker time and then their time just continue to drop from that,’’ Stucky said.

Fountain Central was second in the girls team race.