Area cross country athletes descend on Mount Pleasant tonight for one of the biggest meets of the season. Six KCII area schools will be represented in tonight’s field.

The Washington Demon boys and girls will attend. Both squads come in ranked among the best in Class 3A by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches. As a team, the Demon boys are ranked No. 7 in Class 3A and the Demon girls are No. 14. Micah Rees represents the Demons in the individual 3A poll at No. 3. Washington had a big night on the course Thursday in Fort Madison, winning the boy’s and girl’s team championships led by an individual boys title for Rees and girl’s gold for Iris Dahl.

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks will travel to Mount Pleasant tonight. The Hawks have been off since a September 9th meet at Monticello, where the boys won team gold, led by Emmett Swartzentruber in second individually. The girls were second in the team race with Abby Fleming setting the pace in eighth. Both Golden Hawk teams are ranked second in 2A entering competition. Four Golden Hawk girls are among the top 30 including top ranked Danielle Hostetler, No. 9 Greta Sieren, No. 22 Abby Fleming and No. 29 Brooklyn Stutzman. The boys have three individuals in the poll with Swartzentruber eighth, Jayse Yoder 11th and Preston Yutzy 16th.

The Columbus Wildcats will trek to Mount Pleasant tonight. They ran last at Fort Madison a week ago with the girls and boys both finishing team runners-up in the B division. Iris Garza set a new school record with her run of 21:40. Damian Vergara was best on the boys side in 10th.

The Lone Tree Lions will be on the course in Mount Pleasant Tuesday. They ran last at English Valleys a week ago. The Lions did not have a boy’s or girl’s team score. Vivian Zaruba led on the girl’s side in 12th, Brock Nebergal was 16th for the boys.

The WACO Warriors travel south to Mount Pleasant Tuesday. The Warriors also ran at EV last week where Keiran Luitjens led the boys in 13th and Justine Lynn the girls in 39th.

Winfield-Mt. Union rounds out the area schools in attendance. The Wolves are represented in this week’s Class 1A top 30 by Kohlby Newsom at No. 28. The Wolves took on the field at Fort Madison last week. Newsom had the top B division time for an area runner, placing third as WMU took fourth in the team standings. The Lady Wolves were led by Jana Isanta Vila in 32nd.

Joining these KCII area schools tonight are Central Lee, the No. 15 Danville boys and their girls, Fairfield, Fort Madison, Holy Trinity, Keokuk, Louisa-Muscatine, the No. 7 Mediapolis boys and their girls, Burlington Notre Dame, Oskaloosa, Wilton and the home Panthers. There are a dozen ranked runners competing. Action starts tonight at 4:30p.m.