Washington’s Lance Sobaski was the lone area cross country runner to compete at day one of the state meet on Friday and the junior finished in the top 30 for his class.

His time of 17:03 was 27th out of 134 runners in the class 3A boys’ race at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge. Nate Mueller of ADM won it all in 15:28. Sobaski tells KCII Sports he got out strong and led the pack for a bit. “I had a very strong start and kind of faded in the middle before ending well. The experience of having been here last year helped me a lot. Last year I was kind of in awe with the whole atmosphere of state, but this year I knew what to expect and was more focused on the race.”

The junior had a big improvement in his second stint at state, as last fall he placed 95th in 17:48.