Next week’s state qualifying race will send the Adel-Desoto-Minburn cross country runners to a familiar location. The Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released the race location for all teams Tuesday and the Tigers will compete in the Atlantic’s Class 3A state qualifying race. The meet is set to run at Atlantic’s Golf and Country Club on Thursday, October 19.

ADM head cross country coach David Zwank likes his team’s chances entering the state qualifying meet. “It’s an assignment that I think is a positive for us.” Zwank said, “Hopefully the kids see it that way. It’s about going out and giving it your best shot and see what happens. We can’t control the outcomes but we can certainly can control our effort.”

Zwank takes us through the layout of the course. “It starts out with a short incline and then a pretty steep drop and then its pretty flat.” Zwank said, “As you get into the second mile about a mile and a half in you go up a big hill. Then (the course) starts to roll up and down. There are some climbs that are challenging. I think mentally you have to be in it, you got to be ready to work through that.”

The teams ADM will run against includes Atlantic, Ballard, Bondurant-Farrar, Boone Carlisle, Creston, Dension-Schleswig, Glenwood, Harlan, Kuemper Catholic, Perry, and Winterset. The top 15 runners and the three teams with the lowest score will advance to run in the 2017 Class 3A State Cross Country meet Saturday, October 28 at Fort Dodge’s Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.