It’s time for cross country runners across the state to try to earn their way to the state meet tonight with qualifying meets taking place. The top 3 teams and top 15 individual runners from each of five sites will qualify for the state meet in Fort Dodge on October 28th. Races are scheduled to begin at 4:00pm today. A list of qualifying meet sites featuring area teams is listed below.

Class 1A

Mount Ayr
AHSTW, Audubon, Baxter, Bedford, CAM, Central Decatur, Clarinda Academy, Diagonal, Earlham, East Mills, East Union, Exira-EHK, Griswold, IKM-Manning, Lenox, Martensdale-St. Marys, Mount Ayr, Nodaway Valley, Orient-Macksburg, Panorama, Riverside, SW Valley, Stanton, Treynor, Wayne, West Central Valley, Woodward Academy, Woodward-Granger

Ridge View @ Holstein CC
ACGC, Alta-Aurelia, Boyer Valley, Gehlen Catholic, Harris-Lake Park, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, Hinton, Lawton-Bronson, Logan-Magnolia, MMC/RU, Paton-Churdan, Ridge View, Sibley-Ocheyedan, Sioux Central, Siouxland, Christian, South O’Brien, St. Albert, St. Edmond, St. Mary’s, Tri-Center, Trinity Chrisitan, West Bend-Mallard, West Harrison, West Monona, West Sioux, Westwood, Whiting, Woodbine

Class 2A

South Central Calhoun
Aplington-Parkersburg, Clarinda, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, East Sac County, Greene County, Okoboji, Pocahontas Area, Red Oak, Sheldon, Shenandoah, South Central Calhoun, SE Valley, Southwest Iowa, Van Meter

Class 3A

Atlantic @ AGCC
ADM, Ballard, Bondurant-Farrar, Boone, Carlisle, Creston, Denison-Schleswig, Glenwood, Harlan, Kuemper Catholic, Perry, Winterset

Class 4A

Abraham Lincoln
Ankeny Centennial, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis Central, Waukee, Souix City East, Sioux City North, Sioux City West

The Atlantic Trojans (5-3, 3-3) will finish off the 2017 football season with a home game against the Harlan Cyclones (7-1, 6-0) on Friday night. The senior class was able to place their stamp on program improvement with a win last week at Carroll that guaranteed them the first winning season since 2012. They don’t want to stop there though, and will look to knock off the 6th ranked Cyclones to put an exclamation point on the season.

In order to get a win the Trojans will try to slow down Harlan star running back Nick Foss who has rushed for 1,464 yards on the season with 24 touchdowns. Foss has also caught 9 passes for 205 yards and three more scores. Atlantic Head Coach Mike McDermott said the Trojans know what he brings to the game.

Atlantic will counter with the passing game led by quarterback Jaxson Eden who has hit on 69% of his passes for 1,315 yards and 9 touchdowns.  Chase Mullenix has been a big play threat with 453 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns to go along with three rushing scores.  Coach McDermott said it will start up front on offense with the line being able to create some seams in the run game and being able to pass protect.

Harlan already knows their fate as they have locked up the District title but there is never any lack of motivation when the Trojans and Cyclones get together. Coach McDermott expects a great atmosphere for the game.

The Trojans and Cyclones are set for a 7:30pm kickoff at the Trojan Bowl Friday. Listen to a full interview with Coach McDermott on Trojan Preview at 4:45pm.

The CAM Cougars (6-3, 4-2) football team will travel to Tabor on Friday night to face the Fremont-Mills Knights (6-2, 5-1) with a playoff spot on the line.  The winner will grab the runner-up spot in 8-Man District 7 behind the Sidney Cowboys. The Cougars put themselves in the position to win and get in with a big home win last week over Exira-EHK 58-47 in a shootout.

CAM has battled through a load of big injuries this season and Head Coach Joe Wollum said that has brought his team closer.

Fremont-Mills has put up some big offensive numbers behind star quarterback Mason Vanatta who has thrown for 1,073 yards and 14 touchdowns, and rushed for 826 yards and 16 more scores. Coach Wollum wants his defense to be able to slow down Vanatta and the Knights to give them a chance to win.

Injuries were an issue for the Knights early in the season as well but they have gotten healthier as the year progressed.  The offense has become more diverse for the Knights in recent weeks and F-M Head Coach Jeremy Christiansen says that is partly due to those early season struggles.

CAM has a dynamic quarterback of their own in senior Thomas Hensley. He leads the entire state in Total offense (rushing and passing) with 2,991 yards racked up to go along with a state-leading 49 touchdowns.  Coach Christiansen said he isn’t sure how you slow a player like Hensley down, but they want to try to contain him.

We’ll have coverage of the Cougars and Knights on KJAN with pregame at 6:30pm and kickoff at 7:00pm. We’ll start the night with our pick ’em show Who’s Gonna Win? at 6:00pm. Catch the action on AM1220, FM101.1, online at kjan.com, on the KJAN mobile app, or live video on KJANTV. Chris Parks and Mike Smith will have the call from Tabor.