With the state cross country meet looming ahead, and the districts meet over, the Trojans are going to be taking junior Taylor McCreedy as an individual to state, along with the entire boys’ squad.

In order to run as an individual in the state meet, the runner must be in the top 15 finishers. For a whole team to qualify for state, they must be in the top three teams at the district meet. The girls finished in fourth with a score of 115, 17 points behind third place ADM. The boys finished third with a score of 107, and they were 48 points behind second place North Polk, who had a score of 59. 

Originally, Atlantic and Harlan tied for third place on the boys’ side. In order to break the tie, officials scored the sixth runner. Junior Ethan Williams was the sixth runner for Atlantic. He finished in 42nd place, with a time of 19:12.13. This was 41 seconds faster than the sixth runner from Harlan, who finished 56th.

Even though he had to sit out for “a lot of practices and meets,” senior Zach McKay still had a blast “being able to jam out in the back of the bus with friends” and creating a tight-knit bond with his team. This senior’s least favorite part of the season was sitting out of many practices and meets due to injuries. Throughout his years in high school, McKay has been involved with cross country every year. He began his cross country days in middle school, and joined because his mom “wanted him to do a fall sport” and he continued throughout high school because he fell in love with running. 

The state meet will be held on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge. This will be the final cross country meet of the season.