One the great thrills in high school sports is the opportunity to participate in competition at the state level. Several ACGC athletes will experience that opportunity next week when the state cross country championships will be held in Fort Dodge.

ACGC hosted the district cross country meets for both boys' and girls' this afternoon, and came away with some commendable performances. Veteran girl's runner Kate Crawford qualified for her third consecutive state meet when she finished third on the Charger course in a field of one hundred and twenty seven runners. Crawford's time over the 5 kilometer course was 20:31.07.

The top three teams in both girls' and boys' divisions qualify for the state meet in addition to the top fifteen individuals in each division. When the top three teams in the girls' race were announced by ACGC athletic director Ethan Lensch, the members of the Charger girls' squad squealed with delight, as they had reached a goal they had set for themselves. In addition to Crawford's outstanding performance, Lauryn Embleton finished eighteenth (counting for 16 team points) with a time of 22:36.67, Rylee Sloss came in twenty first (19 points) in 22:54.14, Keely Vasey was 40th (34 points) in a time of 24:09.68, and Alyson Embleton finished 43rd (36 points) in 24:24.69. Also running for the Chargers were Aubrey Chmelar who ran the course in 25:20.97 and Kendra Campbell whose time was 26:42.21.

Charger senior Noah Nelson turned in an excellent performance in finishing second in the boys' competition as he ran the 5K distance in 17:41.18, just ten seconds behind winner Josh Baudler of Nodaway Valley. Nelson pulled away from a cluster of runners on the final 300 meters of the race to claim the runner up spot. Senior Clay Billheimer will also complete his career at the state meet as he claimed eleventh place in a time of 18:36.30.

As a team the boys finished in fifth place with 126 points. Other Chargers who figured in the scoring were Ben Young (19:56.34) in thirtieth place, Miles Kading (20:11.39) in thirty seventh, and Blaine Beeler (20:31.21) in forty sixth place. Additional Charger runners were Donnie Swanson (21:16.23) and Eli Kading (21:22.04).

Earlham had an exceptional day at the meet as both its girls and boys teams captured team titles. The state meet will be held next Saturday, October 27 at the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course north of Fort Dodge. The 1A girls' competition will begin at 2 PM, while the boys will run at 2:30 PM.

Boys' Team Scores Girls' Team Score

Earlham 84 Earlham . 86

Nodaway Val 92 Tri-Center 99

Wood Acad 96 ACGC 108

Tri-Center 124 AHSTW 128

ACGC 126 Nodaway Val 176

Sidney 206 Boyer Valley 218

Mt. Ayr 208 Audubon 219

IKM-M 225 Mt. Ayr 221

Bedford 241 Man NWW 225

Riverside 243 Ex-EHK 253

Boyer Val 269 East Union 257

WCV 278 W-G 258

Man NWW 303 Bedford 259

W-G 318 SW Valley 292

East Mills 429 CAM 318

O-M . 474

Clar Acad 510

Lenox 518