Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: Trevor Jacobson of Humboldt qualified for the state cross country meet on Wednesday.

A pair of Humboldt and Algona teammates will represent the North Central Conference at the state cross country meet after earning state spots on Wednesday in Le Mars for a Class 3A qualifying competition.

The Wildcat senior duo of Trevor Jacobson and Jackson Chambers will both return to Lakeside after advancing to state during their sophomore seasons. Algona junior Moriah Knapp and junior Ryan Stundahl, meanwhile, both earned individual spots as well.

“It means a lot to me to qualify for state,” Knapp said. “It proves that all of the hard work and training that I have put in since last year has paid off. I can’t wait until next week (in Fort Dodge) to compete with all the great runners in the state and to see how well I can do.”

The Class 4A and 3A state meet will be on Friday at Lakeside. The 3A girls will run at 2:30 p.m., and the boys will compete at 3:15 p.m.

Knapp had the highest area finish, placing fourth on Thursday in a time of 19:45. She’s headed to Fort Dodge for a second time.

“I’ve made a lot of connections with girls in this sport and it will be a fun day at state,” Knapp said. “I ran well for the conditions that we had. It was very windy, cold, and rainy. I ran a personal best of 19:45.”

Stundahl finished sixth, crossing the tape in 17:12.

“It means a lot to me to qualify,” Stundahl said. “I have been training for it over these past three years and I’m excited to compete this year.

“As for the race, the weather was not the greatest, but everyone else had to run in it, too. Overall, I really cannot complain about it. I thought that I did pretty well.”

MOC-Floyd Valley’s Sam May was the individual champion and Glenwood was the team champion.

Humboldt placed eighth and Algona was ninth.

For the Wildcats, Jacobson (17:19) was eighth and earned his second trip to state.

“It means everything for me to be able to represent Humboldt at the state level,” Jacobson said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates, coaches and family. The race went perfectly.

“It was awesome to have everyone’s support. I’m so thankful and I cannot express how much it really means to me.”

Chambers grabbed the final qualifying spot in 15th with a time of 17:35.

“It means the world to me to become a state runner my senior year,” said Chambers, who was part of Humboldt’s team state appearance in 2019. “For my race I had a mind set to just try and PR and then when my coach and fellow teammates were cheering and then yelled the position I was like okay I’m going to make it to state.

“I’m glad Trevor made it to state as well because we worked so hard to get where we are.”

The Fort Dodge cross country teams competed in Ankeny, as both took seventh place finishes.

On the boys side, junior Ryan Madden earned the top Dodger finish, placing 29th (17:48). Sophomore Michael Wagner (18:16) was 34th, and freshman Micah Flaherty (18:48) was 41st.

“Coach (Shelby) Curry and I are so proud of these athletes and their teammates who came and cheered them on,” said FDSH head coach Joe Jackson. “All of our runners had either personal records or season best times on a very windy afternoon.”

Freshmen Shawn Roberts (47th in 19:22) and Tanner Teske (48th in 19:35) also counted for the Dodgers.

For the FDSH girls, Paige Lewis (24:46) placed 37th and Lexi Fellers (25:26) was 40th. Dari Cook (25:42) took 41st.

Rounding out the top-five was Tristan Holst (43rd in 25:59) and Tavia Geilenfeld (46th in 26:22).

“They had a blast sending our seniors out on a high note and encouraging our underclassmen to keep working hard for track and next year’s cross country season,” Jackson said.