PORTLAND, Ore. - Joash Osoro and the Bismarck High School boys cross country team finished with a bang on Saturday.

The Demons finished 14th out of 22 teams in the Nike Cross Country Nationals. Bismarck came into the meet ranked 15th in the nation.

Osoro, a senior, finished his high school career with a third-place finish among the 199 runners.

"He was just awesome," said Bismarck coach Dave Zittleman, who shares the Demons' coaching duties with Darrell Anderson. "He was on a mission today."

Osoro covered the 5K course in 15:18.7, .6 seconds behind second place and 5.1 seconds behind the winner. Osoro led parts of the race.

"He really pushed the pace and took control of the race," Zittleman said. "He went after them."

Fellow senior Devin Huizenga came in 28th in 15:50.40, the best time of his career.

"Devin ran awesome," Zittleman said. "He ran a great race."

Osoro and Huizenga helped the Demons score 307 points.

"Those two guys have been everything to BHS cross country," Zittleman said. "They are great leaders who will be sorely missed."

Bismarck was the first team to qualify for the national meet from the state of North Dakota.

"The guys wanted to be in the top 10," Zittleman said. "But 14 isn't bad."

The Demons finished 27 points out of 10th place. Zittleman said there are more than 15,000 high school cross country teams throughout the nation.

"When you think about the numbers, it's just amazing," he said.

Junior Christian Brown Otter finished 107th (16:28.4) and Dion Schulz was 197th (19:20.8), while Josh Nuss finished 144th (16:53.8) and junior Brandon Barnes was 169th (17:16.7).

Schulz and Nuss ran the last race of their prep careers.

Junior Josh Hintz finished 190th (17:41.6) to round out the Bismarck finishers.

In the open division, senior Coty Hintz came in 61st (17:53.1) and sophomore Alex Huizenga crossed the line in 69th (18:15.7).