There shouldn't be any surprises for the East Linn Christian girls cross country team at the state meet Saturday in Eugene.

Five of the team's varsity runners have experience at the state meet and two of the Eagles, Katelin Renfro and Lisl Ruckert, will be making their third trip to the competition.

To make sure that everyone is prepared, East Linn Christian coach Gary Timms took his squad down to Lane Community College on Tuesday to run the 5K course.

"The course was all set up and there were about four or five teams there," Timms said, adding that he is a big fan of the location. "For audience viewing, it's the best course we run all year. You can really see a lot of the course."

East Linn was not happy with its finish last year as the team placed 11th in the 3A/2A/1A team standings. The squad has qualified for state in five of the seven years Timms has led the squad and its best finish has been third place.

The goal this year is to be in the top four and take home a trophy. Timms said that according to the form chart, East Linn is projected for a sixth-place finish, but the teams are closely bunched.

To get his team ready, Timms has cut back on the mileage this week in training, focusing on speed work and getting everyone healthy. He has been very happy with their progress.

"This team I have this year, they came a long ways. If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year about our chances, I would have wondered," Timms said.

West Albany coach Craig Swanson took his team to Lane on Thursday night. The West Albany girls squad qualified for state and two boys runners, Michael Shogren and Jordan Monroe, qualified as individuals.

Swanson said the girls' second-place finish in the team standings at the Mid-Willamette Conference meet was the culmination of several years of improvement.

"The last two years the girls have just continued to get better and better. We finished fourth by a point last year and I thought we had a good chance of getting third this year," Swanson said. "Over the last couple of weeks we started feeling confident that we could sneak a team in."

This is only the fifth time in school history that the West Albany girls have qualified for the state and it is their first trip since 2001.

The best that a West Albany girls team has ever finished at state is 10th place.

"We're going down there to see if they can better that," Swanson said. "Go out, compete and have our best race of the year."

Girls teams

3A/2A/1A

East Linn Christian Academy: Katelin Renfro, Zoe Engwall, Hannah Whitehead, Lisl Ruckert, Whitley Garber, Mengqi Liu, Autumn Short

Central Linn: Jessica Ealy, Rachel Gerber, Rose Gerber, Amanda Mayer, Victoria Morrow, Madi Nielson-Binder, Jocelyn Vinson

Santiam Christian: Kayla Berg, Sarah Calkin, Emma Carlson, Sarah Miller, Bethany Reams, Abbey Roberts, McKenzie Smithson

4A

Sweet Home: Caroline Amendola, Olivia Johnson, Jenna Kistner, Natasha Perry, Paige Sanders, Jessica Snow, Carissa Swanson

5A

West Albany: Teal Barrett, Makenna Becker, Tiga Evans, Erin Jamison, Jen Johnston, Sophie Kaplan, Dara Tillery

Individuals

3A/2A/1A

Harrisburg: Chelsea Long

5A

South Albany: Anna Demchuk

Boys teams

4A

Sweet Home: Jake Comstock, Daniel Danforth, Nick Hall, Casey Keys, Byron Sanders, Avery Shamek, Chris Thompson

Individuals

3A/2A/1A

Central Linn: Joseph Ewers, Zachary Holloway

Scio: Eric Holmberg

5A

West Albany: Michael Shogren, Jordan Monroe