It’s been over a decade since Pella Christian girls cross country has made it to the State Meet in Fort Dodge as a team. 

The pursuit of the Eagles first State Meet berth since 2008 will be slightly tougher this season, as they have been bumped up to Class 2A this fall. While ending that drought will be tough in a deep Class 2A field, Pella Christian Head Coach Mike Buchheit is encouraged by what he has seen in the early parts of the season. Coach Buchheit has one of his biggest girls cross country rosters to date and is excited about the addition of five freshmen to the squad.

“The practices where I look around and I hardly have enough girls to fill out a five, six, seven girl rosters like our early years is behind us now. So we’re getting to the point where we’ve got a full varsity, full JV roster and an opportunity for girls to rest as they need to rest, run when they can run and have just a little more depth to be able to train with other girls. So we’re excited to see some new contributions from some of those girls and then to round out some of the really good talent that we’ve got in the upper classes as well.”

The Eagles open the season on Thursday at the Marshalltown Early Bird Invitational at Marshalltown Community College.