Cross country teams and individuals in Classes 1A and 2A will take part in state qualifying meets Thursday.
The 1A qualifier at Newman Catholic will locally include Aplington-Parkersburg, Clarksville and West Fork. AP coach Jonna Junker says they’ll face some ranked teams, though the Falcon girls could be a favorite to advance with a #18 ranking in 1A.
“Tough district again,” Junker says. “We’ll be chasing to get to state, but like I told the kids, anything’s possible. We had a couple run really good PRs at the conference meet. So if we all go out and do that, you never know. So just trying to keep positive and keep working towards our goals. And ultimately, if they end the season with PRs, that’s all you can really ask them to do.”
North Butler will be at the qualifier at South Hamilton, rounding out local teams in Class 1A. The Bearcat boys are ranked #17 in 1A.
Dike-New Hartford and BK-CGD will be at the 2A qualifier at Eagle Grove. DNH coach Will Reingardt says the meet will have stiff competition.
“The girls will see some common opponents with Denver and Jesup,” Reingardt says. “Van Meter is ranked number two in the state. That’ll be a challenge, but that should help push us along with things. Roland-Story is another ranked team on the girls’ side. Boys’ side, it’s pretty loaded. There’s four ranked teams, and then there’s two other teams that have some guys running the 17s. So it’s a pretty loaded field. I would say it’s going to be similar to the conference meet on the boys’ side with how many individual top runners there are and good teams that there are.”
The Wolverine girls are ranked #10 in 2A.
Completing the meets including local schools, Grundy Center will be at the qualifier at Iowa City Regina and South Hardin will be at Oelwein.
In Class 2A, the first three teams and first 15 individuals will advance to the state meet. In Class 1A, the first two teams and 10 individuals will advance. In both classes, a minimum of five individual state qualifiers will advance from each site if the first 15 or 10 individuals are taken by team state qualifiers.
The meets will start at 4:00 p.m.
