The Pella High girls cross country team loses its top three finishers from last year’s second place state meet team, and four of its top seven, but there’s plenty of experience remaining.

Coach Doug Cutler says it starts with a great group of seniors.

“We’ve got two seniors in particular who have a lot of experience – Annika Pingel and Erica Halstead, and we’ve got other great seniors like Erica Bossard and others. Also returning from that state team, we’ve still got Makayla Kruse, Caroline McMartin, Hailey Kowzan and Tirzah Wittenberg. We’ve got some fantastic runners back.”

The Lady Dutch will get their first taste of competition this fall one week from tonight when they run at Ankeny Centennial.