Pella Christian will compete in the State Cross Country Meet this Saturday, after the Boys team, and girls individual runners Joslyn Terpstra and Jaclyn Holmes qualified at the Pekin State Qualifier last Thursday.

The Eagles boys team qualified for the meet after finishing second and just six points behind Earlham who is ranked #2 in Class 1A. The Pella Christian Girls team finished just one spot away from qualifying as a team, but Joslyn Terpstra and Jaclyn Holmes finished 5th and 8th to qualify as individuals. Pella Christian Head Cross Country Coach Mike Buchheit said it’s exciting to see all of the kids’ hard work paying off.

“Cross Country is not an easy sport. Cross Country is definitely a big mental sport and it’s very physical when you decide to train for six days a week for 10-11 weeks once we get to the start of the season and some kids are certainly hitting the roads and trails in the summertime already too. It’s been awesome for us to get to that race and see how the kids really competed in that race.”

The girls race will kick off the Class 1A slate of State Meet events at 2:30 pm followed by the Boys race at 3:15 pm, with the Awards Ceremony scheduled for 4 pm.