LINN – Ben Sommers has been there before. For Madelyn Marschel, it’s her first trip.

Either way, the two Warrenton Warrior runners will finish their season on the big stage at the MSHSAA Cross Country State Championships this Saturday in Columbia.

Sommers qualified with a 13th place finish (18:10.44) and Marschel took ninth (21:29.84) in their respective races at the Class 3 District 4 Meet last weekend at the Linn Athletic Complex.

The top 15 individuals and top two teams clinched state berths.

“They both had great races,” Warrenton Coach Jeremy Collins said. “Ben was with the pack for a majority of the time and in about the last half mile he put a little distance between him and the last qualifying spot.

“And it was Madelyn’s best race of the year. She put herself in a great position at the beginning of the race and then kept moving up throughout. She seemed very determined to be in the top-15 and as a freshman she handled her first district extremely well.”

Sommers, a junior, qualified for state as a freshman, but missed out on consecutive trips when Warrenton was bumped up to Class 4 last year. The Warriors are back in Class 3 for 2019.

“This means a lot to me and it’s great to represent my town,” Sommers said. “I just want to go out there and compete. It was rough not being able to go last year, but on the bright side I’m glad I got to support my teammate Nate Nordwald, who did a great job.”

Now it’s Sommers who will be on the receiving end of the support. He was the lone Warrior of seven to make it out of the boys race at districts.

Sophomore Gabe Frederick took 25th (18:45.05), freshman Coalton Hill 50th (20:15.49), sophomore Thomas Hale 56th (20:38.47), freshman Mark Thomas Diller 66th (21:53.36), freshman Zachariah Bristol 67th (22:00.66) and sophomore Ian Vacek 76th (24:20.54).

Warrenton finished eighth of 11 competing schools. Westminster won the team title with 55 points and Capital City was second with 70.

“We were very inexperienced going into this year,” Collins said. “As the season went on the guys got used to the workouts and to racing a 5K. It was a learning experience for a lot of them, but they ended the season on a strong note. Looking ahead to next year, we have everyone coming back and we’ll add some freshmen into the mix so we should see a lot of improvement.”

Warrenton took seventh place of 10 teams in the girls race with MICDS taking first and Osage second.

After Marschel’s ninth place finish, senior Anahi Saldna finished in 29th (23:15.87), junior Emma Lewis 38th (24:23.33), freshman Mattison Halter 53rd (25:42.75), senior Hannah Hoelscher 58th (26:46.81) and junior Gabby Scruggs 70th (29:51.19).

“We made progress throughout the year on the girls side, but there were some injuries that hurt us as a team,” Collins said. “The biggest was to Lexi Frederick. She wasn’t 100 percent going into districts, but still gave it everything she had even though she was unable to finish. We’ll have four of our varsity runners back for next year and should be in solid shape.”

Saturday’s championship race will be held at Gans Creek in Columbia for the first time after more than nearly four decades Jefferson City had been the host.