LINN – While wrestlers and basketball players pack the inside of Wright City High this week for the first practices of the winter sports season, Trent Bruning pretty much has the outside of the campus to himself.

He’s literally the only Wildcat athlete left still competing in a fall sport.

And that’s a byproduct of the sophomore’s performance at last Saturday’s Class 3 District 4 Cross Country Meet in Linn, where Bruning crossed the finish line fast enough to qualify for the state championship, which is this Saturday at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.

“Trent’s been battling a knee injury and hasn’t been able to run as much as we’d like during practice,” Wright City Coach Billy Garrett said. “But with how he’s been racing this year, we knew a state qualifying position would be a close call.”

It couldn’t have been much closer.

The top 15 individuals in each district qualify for state and Bruning snagged the 15th and final spot, finishing with a time of 18:17.49.

“I just had to work hard, push through any pain and persevere,” Bruning said. “I definitely didn’t think I’d make it to state at the beginning of the season.”

But that’s where Bruning will be this weekend, capping a successful campaign that included first-place finishes at the Van-Far Invite and Clopton Hamburger Meet as well as a third place showing at the Eastern Missouri Conference Meet.

“Trent got out to a good position at the beginning of the district race and he was able to hang on and finish,” Garrett said. “Qualifying for state as a sophomore is a big accomplishment and he dropped his district time from last year by nearly a minute.”

Wright City landed in 10th in the team standings and had five other runners in the boys race but did not have any other qualifying finishes for state.

Senior Brandon Culton took 46th (19:51.01), junior Cailou Florian Mueller-Williams 58th (20:41.68), senior Colten Stodgill 62nd (21:20.46), sophomore Jackson Mazella 71st (23:01.11) and freshman Elijah Kuntz 78th (25:53.35).

“As a team were small in numbers this year and that made it tough if someone had a bad day or was hurting on a meet day,” Garrett said. “But everyone made great improvements on their times as the season progressed and we saw a lot of growth from those in the program.”

Osage senior Chase Grosvenor won the individual title in Linn with a time of 17:13.02.

Westminster Christian won the team title with 55 points and Capital City was second with 70. The top two district squads receive an automatic state berth.

Senior Katherine Mazella was Wright City’s lone runner in the girls race and finished 75th with a time of 37:33.37.

Saturday’s state championship race will mark a first for Bruning and a first for the city of Columbia, as Jefferson City had been the site’s host for nearly four decades.