The Fatima Lady Comets look to defend their Class 2 team title today at the MSHSAA Cross Country Championships at the Oak Hills Golf Center.
Fatima, which has claimed the last two Class 2 girls crowns, advanced to state by winning the District 4 team title last weekend in Westphalia.
Brianna Haller returns to defend her individual state title she captured as a freshman last season. Other returning all-staters for the Lady Comets are junior Madison Day (fourth) and sophomore Hannah Kloeppel (22nd).
Others contenders to capture Class 2 girls team honors today include Herculaneum, second last season, and Whitfield, which finished third.
Among the other area state individual qualifiers are Adrian Mann of South Callaway and Harley Nale of Linn. Nale was 17th at state last season.
On the boys side in Class 2, Russellville and Fatima both advanced by taking the top two spots at the district championships.
Russellville won the district title with 52 points, while Fatima totaled 63.
Russellville had four all-district performers in Anthony Bertucci (third), Damian Miller (seventh), Harrison Frank (ninth) and Austin Roe (15th).
Alex Krieg captured individual district honors for Fatima, while Hunter Hennier (fifth) an Logan Borland (10th) were all-district. Hennier finished ninth last season in the state championships, while Krieg was 32nd and Borland was 64th as the Comets took fourth as a team.
Isaac Ashton of Tipton also qualified for the championships.
In Class 1, the New Bloomfield Wildcats advanced by taking District 2 honors at Bowling Green.
Charles Shattgen was the individual district champion for the Wildcats, while teammates Payton Culwell (fifth) and Robert Morningstar (ninth) also earned all-district honors.
Robert Ashbaugh of Calary Lutheran also advanced to state by finishing 11th in the district championships.
New Bloomfield will also have three individuals running in the girls race - Kassi O'Dowd, Macy Puckett and Kate Baxter. Chamois will have two runners - Autumn Baker and Cheyenne Heymeyer.
The Class 1 girls race is the first race of the day, slated for a 9 a.m. start. The Class 1 boys race will start at 10:15 a.m.