Area runners take aim at Fort Dodge with state qualifying cross-country meets today.

At Central College…first up will be the 2-A qualifying meet…featuring local schools Pella Christian and PCM.

Eagles Coach Jocelyn Meinders talked to KNIA/KRLS Sports about the expectations for her club today…

“The girls are going to go out there and see what kind of race they can run. They’re probably not going to have anyone going to state this year, but Annaliese (Admiraal) will probably be up there a ways, and as a freshman, it’s good to see what it’s like and to get an eye for that. I think the boys have a genuine chance to qualify as a team. We know they need to go out and run competitive races, and obviously Grant Dunsbergen qualified for state last year and he’s much much faster this year.”

After 2-A wraps up, Pella and Knoxville will run in a 3-A qualifying meet. The Lady Dutch are ranked third in the state and the Little Dutch are ranked sixth.

Coach Doug Cutler expects each of his teams to have a great chance to qualify for state, and says that tonight’s qualifier is an opportunity to measure themselves against some of the other best teams around.

“On the girls side, Fort Madison, North Polk and Ballard will be here. The Ballard team is one that we beat by just one point at Norwalk a few weeks ago. We didn’t have Tess Roorda running that day, though, so we are confident we can do well. On the boys side, we’ll see Grinnell again, and Mount Pleasant is coming up. That’s exciting because it will give us a new barometer as we’ve seen how they compete against Mount Veron / Lisbon who’s ranked number one this week.”

Action starts with the 2-A girls at 3:00, followed by 2-A boys at 3:30, 3-A girls at 4:00 and 3-A boys at 4:30.

We’ll have full results of today’s area cross-country state qualifying meets tomorrow during sports on KNIA & KRLS, and right here on www.kniakrls.com.