Republic sends two to state cross country meet

Republic qualified two runners for the state cross country championships as Gracie Troester and Catherine Wilson earned spots with strong performances at the Class 5 District 2 meet in Bolivar Saturday.
Troester, competing in just her third meet of the season due to injury, secured her fourth straight state berth with a sixth-place finish. She completed the course in 19:24.47 despite battling an injuury.
“This is my third official race of the season out of ten,” Troester said. “I knew I could make it (to state) from what I ran at COC last meet, but I still needed to hold myself to a standard that I might not be able to make it, because I knew I still had to work for it.”
Wilson, a sophomore ranked 27th entering districts, claimed the final qualifying spot in dramatic fashion. She finished 29th with a time of 20:33.99, battling several other runners down the stretch for one of the last state berths. The top 30 runners advance to state.
“All I could hear was places being yelled at me, and I knew I was right at the cutoff, so I just gave it everything I had,” Wilson said. “We were all together, and all I could hear was screaming, and I knew I had to give it everything, and it was a fight.”
In the boys race, Will Payne led Republic with a 33rd place finish, just missing the qualifying cutoff.
Both Lady Tigers will compete Friday morning at the Class 5 state championship meet, held at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.