High school cross country athletes are in the midst of their state qualifying races, with several athletes earning bids yesterday from KNIA/KRLS area schools in Class 3A and 4A Wednesday, and likely more to come today.

The Pella boys and girls both won their district meet races Wednesday, qualifying their entire teams for the state meet. The Dutch boys have been to state 17 of the past 18 years, the girls are trying to start a new streak after missing as a team in 2021, but still qualifying 16 of the past 18 seasons.

Isaac Rankin of Knoxville is an at-large individual qualifier after placing 11th at the Pella Sports Park Wednesday.

The Norwalk boys cross country team finished 2nd to qualify as a team at Indianola, while the Indianola and Norwalk girls squads each qualified individual members to compete at Fort Dodge after running in the qualifier at Pickard Park.

Indianola athletes Gracie Foster and Emily Naughton finished in 12th and 14th place respectively to qualify individually, and Norwalk’s Breelie Mauro finished in 8th place to also make it for the Warriors.

Running today will be Pella Christian and PCM at the Pella Sports Park at 4 p.m., with Twin Cedars, Melcher-Dallas and Pleasantville will all running in Leon.