Three area athletes will compete in the state cross country meet Saturday in Northfield at St. Olaf College. For two it will be the culmination of their high school careers and for one it will cap off a phenomenal start to a running career.

Albert Lea senior Ethan Marquardt and United South Central/Alden-Conger senior Jordan Haroldson are each making a return trip to the state meet while Chrissy Monson, of Albert Lea, is making her first trip. Marquardt and Monson will compete in the Class AA meet while Haroldson will run in the Class A meet.

Marquardt finished 34th last season and Haroldson finished 30th at last year’s meet.

Marquardt has finished no worse than sixth this season and has his eyes set on placing in the top 25 to earn all-state recognition. He stands a good chance to accomplish that goal as he has improved drastically from last season.

“For him it’s serendipity,” Tiger head coach Jim Haney said. “It’s the culumination of all those hours in the summer. He’s primed, he’s ready to go.”

Haney said the experience of last year will help guide Marquardt through this year’s race as neither quite knew what to expect last year.

“I think the biggest thing is the experience,” Haney said. “The people yelling at you to keep going — it can be overwhelming. He knows exactly what it’s going to be like.”

The key will be the pace Marquardt takes at the start of the race. He’ll need to find the right position in the race to reach his goal. Finding that spot might be difficult as there will be no clear cut front runner like there was last year with Burnsville’s Rob Finnerty. The highest placing runner from last year returning to the meet is Mahad Hassan from Willmar. Hassan finished fourth last year. Four of the top 10 finishers from last year return to the meet. Jacob Bastyr is the highest ranked runner from the Big Nine and he comes in at No. 10. Marquardt finished four seconds behind him at an Owatonna meet Oct. 2.

Haroldson has ranked as high as No. 7 in Class A and enters the meet just out of the rankings. Haroldson finished eighth at the section meet this year, but has been affected by a calf injury. The injury has limited his training time, but he says he’ll be ready for the state meet.

Haroldson is also looking for a top 25 finish for all-state.

“I want to do better than I did last year, try to get under 17 minutes and try to get in the top 25,” Haroldson said. “What ever comes after that I’ll take it.”

Rebels head coach Kent Viesselman said that Haroldson is a runner that rises up to the occassion and last year he ran his season-best time of 17 minutes, 3 seconds at the state meet.

“He’s extremely smooth,” Viesselman said. “He’s a natural runner.”

As far as strategy for the race, Viesselman said it’s pretty simple for Haroldson.

“He just goes out with the leaders,” Viesselman said. “He knows who the people are in southern Minnesota that he can go after.”

Only two finishers in the top 10 from last year return so the field will be wide open. But Plainview-Elgin-Millville advanced as a team and Haroldson has run near their top runners’ times all season long.

“I’m just going leave it all out there and go out there as hard as I can,” Haroldson said.

Monson, an eighth-grader from Albert Lea, is excited to make her first trip to state as that was her goal from the outset of the season. She has ran with some of the state’s best all season long and she wants an all-state placing as well.

“I’m happy to be there,” Monson said. “The hard part was getting there.”

Monson competed against returning champion Laura Hughes at the Big Nine Conference meet and defeated Hughes. Monson finished second at the meet behind Claire Guidinger, of Winona, who is the No. 1-ranked runner in Class AA.

“I think her season this year just gives her confidence,” Haney said. “She’s the type of kid that absolutely thrives when it’s time for her to run.”

Haney says she’ll need to be running with the lead group of runners, but the worry is that she’ll start out too fast and not have much left for the final stretch.

Monson was at her season-best time at the section meet and looks to be getting stronger at the right time. At the first meet of the season Monson finished at 16:31, at sections she had a time of 14:46. She wants to finish the state meet somewhere in the 14:40s.

“I want to have a good time and leave feeling proud of myself,” Monson said.