Several area athletes will compete in the state cross country meet Saturday at University of Minnesota Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights.
Jackson County Central will have two girls and Martin County West/Butterfield-Odin one in Saturday afternoon’s Class A event.
Prior to that, Fairmont will have an entrant in the Class AA girls race in the morning.
For JCC, freshman Cora Pauling will compete in the Class A girls race for the second straight year at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. She placed 104th out of 158 finishers last year.
Pauling will have a teammate lining up along side of her in Box 3 on the starting grid, eighth-grader Naiya Ayers.
MCW/B-O freshman Evelynn Christenson will also compete in the Class A girls event. She’ll start outside in Box 18.
Among the Class A girls teams competing will be Redwood Valley and Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey.
Two Big South Conference teams are in the Class A boys race at 3:15 p.m., Redwood Valley and Luverne. Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey will also have its boys team competing.
The first race of the day is the Class AA gurls event at 10 a.m. and Fairmont’s Macy Hanson will compete in that race.
It will be her fifth time running at state. Hanson ran on the team as a seventh grader in 2019, with the 2020 state meet being canceled. She’s made it to state each of the last three years, placing fourth the last two.
Three Big South Conference teams will compete in the Class AA girls race, Waseca, St. Peter and Marshall.
Marshall also qualified as a team for the Class AA boys event at 10:45 a.m.