As the season winds down for the Owatonna Girls Cross Country team, they are looking to make one last push towards state.”We’ve made some strong individual strides this year even though we’ve been battling through some injuries. We didn’t finish where we’d have like to finish at big nine so we’re hoping we can end strong at sections,” said Coach Dan Leer. The girls competed in the Big 9 Conference meet on Oct. 20, placing 10 out of 12 teams. Senior captain Zoe Kienholz is looking forward to the section meet. Kienholz said, “Cross country is such a team sport, but it has many individual aspects. We may not have placed very well as a team throughout the season, but a lot of personal records have been broken.” Junior Sara Wall placed an impressive 14 out of 79 runners with a time of 20:07 at the Big 9 Section Meet.

The Huskies have some top ranked competition in their section, including Lakeville South and Farmington who are both ranked in the top 10 as a team. In order to qualify for state, the team must place in the Top 2 teams at the section meet. Individually, a runner must place in the Top 8 runners, excluding the girls on the top 2 teams. The girls will finish off their regular season on Thursday, Oct. 29, starting at 2:55 p.m., with their section meet on the upper nine Brooktree Golf Course.

UPDATE: The girls cross country team placed 12th out of 15 teams last Thursday at their section meet. Junior Sara Wall led the team individually running a time of 19:58 and placing 23rd overall.