The fall sports season at Pella Christian officially begins today, as the Eagles cross country teams compete at the Marshalltown Early Bird Invitational.

The Pella Christian boys cross country squad enters the meet fresh off the program’s first trip to the State Meet in Fort Dodge since the 2010 season. Meanwhile the Eagles girls team fell just shy of making the State Meet for the first time in 13 years. The pursuit for both the Pella Christian boys and girls cross country squads got more difficult as they were bumped up to Class 2A. Despite facing bigger competition and a much deeper field, Eagles boys runners Kaden Van Wyngarden and Ben Gosselink believe they have what it takes to return to Fort Dodge at the end of the season.

Van Wyngarden: “This year we got moved from 1A to 2A, so the competition is going to be a little bit harder, but I still want to try and get a boys team to state again. I think it’s really possible this year.”

Gosselink: “Like Kaden said we did get moved to 2A, so it is gonna be harder, but I look forward to pushing ourselves and with all the new faces, I can’t wait to see them push themselves too. ”

The Marshalltown Early Bird Invitational at Marshalltown Community College begins tonight at 4:30 p.m.