The cross country teams and athletes who qualified for state have entered the home stretch of training ahead of Saturday’s final race in Fort Dodge. In order to get there, the Lady Dutch had to gather together their best athletes — many of whom competed with injuries for the majority of the autumn, to claim the 3rd place spot at the district meet this past Thursday. One of those runners–at the time, wasn’t sure if she could make it to state if they qualified. Abby Cutler says she powered through an injury to try and get the senior-heavy Pella team back to the final race of the year for the 14th straight season.

“My pain isn’t as strong as my love for my team and so I want to push myself as hard as I can so I can get these girls to state,” she said after Thursday’s race. “Even if I can’t run at state, it’s still worth it because they get to run there and I get to watch.”

Cutler received decent news the following day, and still could compete at state this weekend, but regardless, senior Ellie Roorda said after Thursday’s race the effort was appreciated and showed how close this group of distance runners has grown over the years.

“It’s really special because this whole season, we really haven’t been able to run together–I believe we’ve only ran all seven of us in one race,” Roorda said. “So it’s really nerve racking since we haven’t done that before, but we knew what we could do it and believed in our team and each other, so I believe that at state we will just do the same thing, and we’ll be amazing.”

The 2019 State Cross Country meet begins at 11 a.m. in Fort Dodge this Saturday, with each class starting their races every half an hour from 11 until the end at 3 p.m. from 4A to 1A. Stay tuned to 92.1 KRLS for continuing coverage, including interviews with local athletes on this Wednesday’s Radio Sports Page.