A trio of teams and three individuals are heading to Saturday's WIAA State cross country meet in Wisconsin Rapids.
The Stevens Point Area Senior High boys and both the Amherst boys and girls qualified as teams while Tami Scott and Brady Staszak of Rosholt and Laine Willkom of SPASH will race as individuals.
The SPASH boys, competing in the Division 1 race, hope to finish in the top seven. Chris Solinsky, who won the WIAA Sectional title in Green Bay last Saturday, could be among the race's leaders.
"We've run better the last two weeks. It is a strong field and there are five or six really tough teams out there," SPASH coach Donn Behnke said, citing La Crosse Central, Waukesha West, West Allis Hale, Neenah and Oshkosh West.
"If we're in the top half, that will be a successful conclusion for us. The other half, unless they run badly, we're not going to touch them."
Behnke said Solinsky, who hasn't lost a race since the first meet of the season, is one of six or seven elite runners in the state.
"I'm hoping that I can get in the top three," Solinsky said. "Hopefully I'll get the fastest time for a sophomore in state meet history," he said, which is 15:32.
Junior Quinn Baumberger and seniors Kyle Patoka, Nate Hurst and Josh Kujawa, as well as freshmen Mickey Katz and Luke Langhorst will compete for SPASH.
"One of our strengths is our guys run patiently and intelligently," Behnke said. "That can pay off at the state meet."
The Amherst boys are making their third straight state meet appearance in Division 3 and sixth in school history. The Falcon girls, who won the WIAA Sectional in Sevastopol last Saturday, are making their first trip to state as a team.
Amherst coach Rob Sparhawk said the team wants to finish higher than last year's 10th place showing.
"To win it would be nice. It's anybody's race," Sparhawk said. "We have already beat Marshfield Columbus earlier in the year. We came close to Rib Lake.
"Since I've been here, we've never had a great state meet performance but we haven't run bad either."
For some of the Falcons, whose highest finish was third place in 1994, running at the state meet isn't anything new. Seniors Jeremy Sherf and Dan Werner, and juniors Jordan Selbo, Jeremy Leck and Jeff Cloninger will all make their third appearance in the race.
They will be joined by junior Tim Olson and sophomore Scott Hintz.
"Tim and Jordan will have to be in the top 15 in team scoring for us to even have a chance to win," Sparhawk said.
For the girls, Sparhawk said, "we're going in there to run a good race with no pressure on us because there's nothing to compare it to.
"The girls are really, really thrilled to make it because they are one of the best teams in the state."
The Falcons do have a pair of returnees who raced at state last year as individuals. Jane Ovanin, a senior, will race at state for the third time and senior Samantha Diver is making her second trip to the final meet of the season.
Amherst also has senior Salla Pulli, the team's No. 1 runner and an exchange student from Sweeden. Freshman Brittney Dick finished 11th at the sectional and has come on toward the end of the season.
They will be joined by senior Jenny Dombrowski, sophomore Jackie Hucke and freshman Cristy Cloninger. The Falcons had a 1:30 gap between their No. 4 and No. 5 runners at the sectional, but that didn't prevent Amherst from winning the sectional title.
"As a coach, a good finish for us would be fifth out of the 14 teams," Sparhawk said. "Potentially, we could have the best four runners in the state. On the team scoring, we're hoping to put four in the top 25. Overall, I hope they have three in the top 12. It is a high goal, but Samantha was 12th last year."
For the individual entries, Scott will likely be the area's highest finisher. She won the individual sectional title last Saturday and hasn't lost a race since the first weeks of the season.
"She wants to race well. Being on the medal stand is the first goal. She has the 'I want to be in the top six or seven' attitude," Rosholt coach Mike Trzebiatowski said.
Trzebiatowski said Scott plans to make a run at the leaders of the race.
"I would think she will stick her nose in and see what happens. The strength factor should play a part in the second mile." She plans to make a bold move with about a 1/2 mile to go and see what happens, he said.
"She's realizing she doesn't have to do the work. At the state meet, it's nice to see someone else lead the race."
Staszak will be running at state for the first time after Trzebiatowski thought the sophomore could be a good runner after seeing him play soccer in physical education classes.
"Brady, you just hope he gets some state meet experience," Trzebiatowski said. "He might be able to put himself in the top 30. We've talked about getting in the 20s early in the race and hanging on."
SPASH's Willkom, a senior, will run her last high school race as an individual. "We feel Laine is in an ideal situation," SPASH coach Mike Olson said. "There's no pressure on her. You don't have a team and their expectations.
"My goal for her is to get a PR (personal record). It's not easy to do at the state meet. If she has fun and enjoys the race, I think she's got a good chance."