The area’s cross country teams are in action this week at their respective district and regional sites to qualify for state.

For the 3A schools, Washington will be at Solon for the district and regional meet and will be a part of a 12 team field. Other teams at Solon are: Davenport Assumption , Benton Comm., Center Point-Urabana, Central Clinton, Clear Creek-Amana, Maquoketa, Marion, Mt. Pleasant, Mount Vernon, Solon and Cedar Rapids Xavier.

Washington head coach Steve Roth said his team didn’t finish as well as he wanted last year, but this year he has changed some things and hopes it helps close out the season on a high note.

“My whole objective, and I just got done talking to my team about it the other night, I was very disappointed in myself because we didn’t finish as well as we could have. I thought we were on the same page and lowered our times and everything, and that is really all you can do, at this stage of the game is make sure your times are lower, and I went back and looked at some things that we did and I changed a couple of things and hopefully our times will lower and we’ll run better, and we’ll run better,” Roth said. “I just didn’t like the way we finished last year.”

Washington will run for a chance at state on Thursday.