Friday’s class 3A State Boys Cross Country Race will feature Knoxville’s Issac Rankin for the 4th time in his career. After the first two years of struggles, he earned all-state last season and has a goal of getting that title again with an even better finish. Rankin knows a lot of younger runners not just on the Panthers squad look up to him, but many of the middle school runners also hold him in high regard. Rankin tells KNIA/KRLS Sports he hopes after he leaves the program after this Friday’s race, several others will follow in his footsteps.

Rankin: “Hopefully younger kids can see that, and see that I had success and maybe give cross country a try and next year without me, Reed, and Connor hopefully they’ll run well.”

Rankin will run on Friday afternoon at 2:45 at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge. Listen for updates during the day on KNIA/KRLS and following along on kniakrls.com.