Once a freshman running prodigy in 3A, Katie Ruhala is now a senior and dominating 4A. After placing first individually in the district race last Thursday, Ruhala, along with the rest of the girls and guys cross-country teams, is preparing for the regional meet on Saturday.

The guys team placed first in the district race and the girls team placed second overall. Of the 15 teams to compete in the regional meet, only the top three will advance to the state meet. However, if an individual places in the top ten and their team does not qualify, they will still earn a spot in the state meet.

“I think we have the potential to have a couple guys place in the top 10 individually as well as Katie,” head coach Greg Christenson said.

The move to 4A has led to some changes in the team’s practice schedule in the effort to better prepare them for stiffer competition.

“We used to have our hardest mileage days on Sundays, but we switched that to Mondays so that everyone could do it together,” senior A.J. Srivastava said. “When it was on Sundays everyone had to hold themselves accountable, but now you have to do it.”

It has also changed some of the runners mentalities at practice.

“We upped the intensity of our work-outs because we know we have better competition,” Ruhala said. “It helps to keep us more focused and it makes us work harder.”

The runners believe that the move to 4A has done nothing to diminish their state aspirations.

“Individually, and team wise, I think we just need to qualify [for state],” Ruhala said. “We’re going to shoot as high as we can, but we know Highland Park is really good.”

For the girls, though, qualifying is not as close to a guarantee as it was in previous years.

“The girls team is one of about five teams that have a really good shot to qualify for the state meet,” Christenson said. “Out of those five teams it’s just going to depend on which 3 teams are on that day and have the most girls running good races.”

The guys team appears to be more optimistic about their state chances.

“We’re going to give our best, I can promise that,” Srivastava said. “It’s looking pretty good right now, though. Everyone’s been doing really well in practice, so we expect to have a good showing and advance.”

Their coach echoed those sentiments.

“I think the guys team is one of about two or three that can move on,” Christenson said. “I really wouldn’t be surprised if they won it. They’re all running really well right now.”