The Columbus Wildcats will be well represented at this year’s state cross country championships after their boys team moved on from Class 1A state qualifying Thursday in North Linn.

Columbus finished second as a team, trailing the winners from Springville by only eight points, and was led by senior Ty Muniz, who ran the team’s top time of 17 minutes two seconds to finish fourth overall.

Cade Storm took 17th individually for the Wildcats, while fellow sophomores Drake Marin, Ryan Villa and Juan Alcala had top-30 times, as did freshman Elias Gonzalez Bravo, helping Columbus advance to state as a team for the third time in the last five years.

Sophomore Iris Garza is also moving on to state after finishing fifth in the girls’ race. Garza clocked in at 20 minutes 23 seconds, the second-fastest time of her career, to punch her ticket to Fort Dodge for a second straight season. Teammate Isabel Rendon nearly joined her by finishing 18th but just missed the cut-off.

The Lone Tree Lions got close to advancing a pair of girls’ runners from their state qualifying meet Thursday in Iowa City. Freshman Addyson Eiben was 22nd overall, while senior teammate Vivian Zaruba was one spot behind her. Brock Nebergall paced the Lone Tree boys with a time of just over 19 minutes.