The Indianola boys and girls cross country teams travel to Johnston today for their state qualifying meet, with the boys trying to get back to state for the second straight year and the girls aiming to get back to Fort Dodge. The #1 ranked boys will have the easier path of making the top three, with only #7 Johnston in the top 10 rankings at the meet with them, and Indianola boasts two ranked runners with Reed Robbins at #8 and Paxton Bloom at #28.

The #19 Indianola girls will have a tougher path, having to try and upset one of Johnston, WDM Valley, or Dowling Catholic, all of whom are ranked in the top 12.
Indianola head girls cross country coach Morgan Singleton said the team has truly embraced the mindset of being the underdog.

“We love a good underdog. I think it’s not out of the question, we’ve told the girls over the last several weeks we get to come and be better on that day. Unfortunately last year we were on the bad side of anything can happen, and hopefully this year we get to be on the other side of that coin. Anything can happen.”

The top three girls and boys teams, and at least the top 15 individual place-winners from each race, advance to the State Cross Country Meet in Fort Dodge on Saturday, November 1st. There is also a minimum of five individuals from non-state qualifying teams at each meet site that are guaranteed a spot at state.

Running starts today at 4pm.

The Indianola girls swimming team placed third at the Little Hawkeye Conference swimming meet at the Indianola Wellness Campus Tuesday, scoring 343 team points.

Top finishers for the Indians included second place finishes by Kaylee Dykstra in the 500 Freestyle and Claire Kingland in the 50 Freestyle, while the 400 Freestyle Relay team of Olivia Costigan, Chloe Powers, Minna Lickiss, and Arowen Garcia as well as the 200 Freestyle Relay team of Serenity Turner, Costigan, Kingland, and Dykstra both placed third. The Indians will take over two weeks off, next swimming in the regional qualifying competition on October 6th at Waukee.