Feistner placed 10th at the section meet with a time of 16:51.91, a personal best, and wasn’t sure he had qualified right after his run.

“The way they called out the state qualifiers, they started with 10th,” he said. “So my name was called first. That was a pretty cool experience.”

Feistner said making the state meet in his senior year was a payoff of all the work he had done.

“My four years in cross-country weren’t completely wasted,” Feistner joked. “That’s the main thing. I’ve always wanted to go to state since freshman year. I’ve been doing this for four years, so it was nice to see the work finally pay off.”

Feistner

Feistner hopes to place in the top 100 at the state meet.

“There’s like 530-ish kids running,” he said. “So top 100 would be really nice. Maybe a PR, but I don’t really have to PR, I’ve already won before I even race.”

Matzke, a junior, re-set her own school record with a time of 19:34.52 to place seventh at the meet.

“It really means a lot to me,” Matzke said. “I’ve never really thought going to state was a thing I could potentially do, but starting this season, I was like ‘I actually really have a shot at it.’ I set the goal and now I’m going to state … It just feels like I accomplished a big goal that I set for myself, and I think it’s going to push me to set even higher goals for myself in the future.”

Matzke said her season has been the result of the support around her.

“I have really supportive friends and family,” she said. “They’re always really proud of me for getting where I am, but they also encourage me to keep getting better. My dad is a great example of that. He always tells me how great of a job I do, but then he always is like ‘You’re going to kill it again next time.’ I have a lot of people out there to keep doing my best, and I really love pushing myself and seeing the improvement.”

Matzke hopes to once again break her personal best time on Saturday.

“I would really just like to push myself and have a really good end to the season.” Matzke said. “I would love to PR if possible. I’m just really excited to run in a different environment. I think it’s going to be really cool to see all of the other incredible runners that I will be running against.”

ALSO FROM THE AREA

The Sibley East boys team of Julio Alejandro, Gage Horstman, Mausten Krueger, Ellyott Allen, Nolan Fisher, Jesse Ballalatak and Tanner Johnson also qualified as a team for the state meet, as did Madelia’s Caleb DeCann. Alejandro placed third in the Section 2A meet with a time of 16:38:32, Horstman placed fourth with a time of 16:39.64, and DeCann came in seventh with a time of 16:48.75. For the girls in Section 2A, Sibley East’s Paige Gardiner placed eighth with a time of 19:43.22 to qualify for state.

In the Section 3A meet, Wabasso sent two runners to the state meet in Elsie Leopold and Andrew Morin. Leopold won the Section 3A girls meet with a time of 19:05.8, while Morin placed second for the boys with a time of 16:48.5.

The Class A State Cross-Country Meet begins at 10 a.m. for the boys and 10:45 a.m. for the girls.