The Pella Christian boys team, girls individuals Jaclyn Holmes and Joslyn Terpstra, and Twin Cedars Rylee Dunkin competed at the State Cross Country Meet on Saturday.

The Eagles boys cross country team came into the meet ranked 11th and well outperformed their ranking with a 5th place finish. Eagles senior Brant VanderHart said it was a great feeling reaching new heights for the program, with the best placement in the school’s history with the 5K race.

“It means a lot from last year not even making it to state to coming here with a whole boys team and a couple of the girls and finishing fifth the best ever, it’s just a great feeling.”

Twin Cedars runner Rylee Dunkin brought home a 12th place finish, earning the junior All-State honors for the third time. Dunkin credited her preseason preparation for her third straight All-State performance.

“I think it paid off pretty well. I definitely ran just as good as I have in the past, I didn’t get worse so that’s a good sign, and knowing that I went out everyday this week even though I didn’t have teammates with me, that’s ok. I still went out there and gave 110% effort and realized that it paid off in the long run.”

Pella Christian girls cross country runners Jaclyn Holmes and Joslyn Terpstra competed in the state meet for the first time in their careers. The Pella Christian girls team finished one spot away from team qualification at the State Qualifier, but Holmes believes that the two individuals competing in the meet will help propel the Eagles to qualify for the meet as a team next year.

“I definitely believe that we have the potential to go to State next year, seeing that we were only like 16 points behind Earlham I think, I definitely think we are going to be going next year.”

The sophomore Holmes finished 35th in the race. Terpstra was unable to finish the race.