Pella, Pella Christian, Knoxville, PCM and Pleasantville all have runners competing in the state cross country meet today in Fort Dodge. The Pella Cross Country squads are feeling confident. The Little Dutch boys team is ranked number one in Class three-A while the girls moved up to number four after upending Williamsburg at the District Meet. Pella Coach Doug Cutler says both squads will be successful if they can continue to run as a team. Knoxville also heads to the class three-A State Cross Country Meet today. The Panthers will send the entire boys team and Alissa VanKlootwyk from the girl’s team to Fort Dodge. Boys Coach Mike Moats says Pella…Grinnell…and Boone and Algona as the defending champions are four of the top teams in the field. He adds Knoxville has a goal of finishing in the top ten. Pella Christian coach Jocelyn Meinders is really excited about the Eagles chances at state in Class two-A today. She says if the guys can run as good as they did at Monday’s District meet they should have a great day today. She says Skyler Giddings…Devin Veenstra, and Josh Meyers have been their leaders all season…but lately Jacob Dahm and others have really stepped up their times and if they can do that again today a top ten should be attainable as a team. Michaela Martin and Kim Van Zee will run as individuals on the girls side for Pella Christian and Meinders says both are certainly capable of earning top 20 finishes and possibly higher. There are a few area cross country runners competing as individuals from the area. On the girls side is Pleasantville’s Delaney Jensen and on the boys from Pleasantville is Bryan Koerselman and from P-C-M is Caleb Catron…Jake Potter…and Koelten Reed. The Class two-A girls race starts at one followed by the boys one-30. The three-A boy’s race starts at 12-30 with the girls race at noon. The one-A girls will run at two with the two-A boys at one-30.

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