FORT DODGE, Iowa — A side of Council Bluffs St. Albert coach Bob Weidman that's generally hidden emerged on Saturday.

The normally mild-mannered Weidman pumped his fist with excitement and flashed an exuberant smile.

His second-ranked Falcons won the Class 1-A team cross country title by a 78-89 margin over second-place West Lyon at Kennedy Park, placing all five of their scored runners in the top 43. It was St. Albert's first team championship since 1992, and Weidman's first with the boys squad.

The Falcons placed two runners in the top 15 as junior Josh Sindelar finished fourth in 16 minutes, 8 seconds over the 5,000-meter course, and senior George Doll was 15th in 16:59.

St. Albert utilized its pack-running style that has worked all season. Rounding out the scorers were junior Scott Theulen (26th, 17:09), senior Pat Martin (39th, 17:32) and sophomore Gus Doll (43rd, 17:33). The sixth and seventh runners, junior Adam Christensen (47th, 17:37) and senior Joe Avey (52nd, 17:45), would have figured in the scoring for every other 1-A team in the state.

"I am very excited and excited for the team," Weidman said. "We had a goal, really, of coming in and running as a very strong team. We talked about it at midseason. That was our goal for every single meet, and they did it today. Even our No. 7 guy was well under 18 minutes, and those are fast times."

Weidman took his sixth consecutive team to state Saturday. However, it was the first time he placed one of his squads in the top three to earn a state trophy. In the past five years, the Falcons' best results were a pair of fifth-place finishes in 2007 and 2009.

The fourth-place individual finish continued an upward trend for Sindelar, the Iowa Association of Track Coaches sixth-ranked runner in 1-A. He previously finished 39th as a freshman in 2009 and seventh as a sophomore.

Earning the team title was especially satisfying to Sindelar. He helped lead the then top-ranked Falcons into the 2010 meet before a disappointing seventh-place finish.

"Last year coming in, I know we were ranked No. 1, and it just kind of felt overwhelming because we had a real young team," he said. "Today, everyone had been here and everybody has run here. We knew what we had to do. We set our goal and we did it."

Doll said things finally clicked for the Falcons at the right time in Fort Dodge.

"I think at the bottom of my heart, we knew we could always do it," said George Doll. "We just had to have the right opportunity. We all finished close together like a team, which is something we really strive for."

The championship provided Weidman with a fitting end to a difficult season. Many of the Falcons' meets included opponents from higher-class schools. Those meets paid dividends Saturday.

"We benefit from running against great competition the whole year," Weidman said. "We run against Thomas Jefferson, Glenwood, against good teams. We had good meets all along the way, and that helps us. It means a lot to bring it back to Council Bluffs and the area."

Also in 1-A, fifth-rated Riverside placed two runners in the top 10 in Cade Cleaveland (second, 16:05) and John Gunderson (seventh, 16:30). It finished seventh as a team.

Cleaveland enjoyed success during the regular season and came in aiming for a quality run to end his prep career.

"I was just hoping to get top 10, maybe top five. Second feels really surprising," he said. "It was definitely (tough) towards the end. I was getting pretty tired in the last mile. But I just tried to really gut through it."

In Class 3-A, Glenwood's Mark Abrams brought home a state medal with a 10th-place time of 16:00, improving on his 21st-place finish in 2010. The Rams placed 11th in the team standings.

Despite running a faster pace than he's comfortable with early in the race, Abrams settled down and ran well down the stretch.

"It gets really hard on the hills when you run faster, especially how the hills are right after the second mile," he said. "But being a senior and a competitor, you've got to deal with it. You've got to deal with what the course or anyone else throws at you."

Shenandoah-Essex's Sean Skillern earned a 21st-place time of 16:27. Skillern was competing in the 3-A field after finishing eighth in 2010 in the 2-A field.

"3-A is a lot tougher than 2-A. The guys are a lot tougher," he said. "The competition was great. There was more of a pack in front than there was last year in 2-A."

Sioux City Heelan took sixth place as a team in 3-A, led by Tommy Thelen's 31st-place time of 16:38.