A chance to go to state is on the line for the Washington and Mid-Prairie cross-country teams as they travel to Pella today for districts.

Twenty-eight teams across class 2A and 3A will be in attendance for the state-qualifying meet. The Golden Hawk boys and girls come in as heavy favorites to return to state as they seek to defend their state title a year ago. For Anna Hostetler this is the first step in repeating as the individual state champion and she comes into the meet ranked fifth in class 2A. In their first ever team conference title last week the senior placed second only behind sister Marie. Marie is ranked first coming into the contest and won conference with a time of 18:29.

The Golden Hawk boys are coming off of their runner up performance last week at conference. Floyd Evans has led the Golden Hawks all year with a third place finish in a time of 17:26. Other runners to look out for are Peyton Miller who finished 11th and Quinn Schmidt was 13th.

For the Demons the girls placed fourth at the Southeast Conference meet last week in Fort Madison. Brooke Stout is a runner to look out for receiving all conference honors by placing seventh with a time of 21:34. Molly Sparks is also coming off of an all conference performance placing ninth.

The boys have been led by Brennan Horak all year and he will look to build off a fifth place finish at conference with a time of 17:36. Evan Horak also received all conference honors placing eighth.

The action gets started at 3 p.m. today and continues into the evening in Pella.