3 individuals also advance

The United South Central girls’ cross country team is headed to the state meet.

The Rebels finished second Thursday in the Section 2A meet in Montgomery behind first-place Waseca. The top two teams advanced to state.

“Our girls were amazing,” Rebels coach Kent Viesselman said. “Our top four all ran very strong, very determined races, and all four finished substantially higher than most people expected.”

Sophomore Emily Mantor and junior Hannah Goemann paced the Rebels and finished third and fourth overall, respectively. Eighth-grader Bethany Koziolek finished 15th, senior Andree Escherich 16th and ninth-grader Ambert Klein 49th. Tikvah Schwartz and Abby Trio rounded out the top seven for the Rebels.

Viesselman said Klein’s 49th-place finish helped seal the state berth.

“Amber is still getting stronger after missing most of the first half of the season,” Viesselman said. “With another week of practice before the state meet she’ll get a little stronger and close that gap a little bit more.”

Also advancing to state for the Rebels were three individuals. Mantor and Goemann will be representing the girls’ team at the state meet, which is held Saturday at St. Olaf College in Northfield, and senior Dylan Baumann will be the lone runner representing the boys’ team.

Mantor finished the 4-kilometer race in 15 minutes and 19.94 seconds, and Goemann finished in 15:20.82. Baumann finished fourth overall in 17:04.18.