Sophomores Austin Lohr of Rolla High School and Emily Perona of St. James High School both qualified for the Missouri state cross country championships, to be held in Jefferson City on Saturday.

Lohr qualified for the state meet through the Missouri Class 4 Section 3 Meet, held last Saturday at Ha Ha Tonka State Park. Lohr finished 15th overall in a field of 80 runners at the sectional meet with a time of 17:07.

Rolla’s other sectional qualifier, senior Stephen Kofoed, placed 65th overall at the sectional event with a time of 18:45.

The top four finishing teams, plus the top 30 individual runners, advanced to the Missouri Class 4 Boys’ Championships, to be held at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Hough Park.

Perona advanced to the state meet for the second consecutive year for the Lady Tigers. She advanced through the Missouri Class 2 District 5 Meet, held last Saturday at Buffalo. In Class 2 runners advance from district straight to the state meet.

The top 15 runners from the girls’ district meet advanced to the Class 2 State Championships, to be held at 9 a.m. Saturday morning at Hough Park.

At the district meet Perona finished sixth overall with a time of 22:38.

St. James also sent three boys and one other girl to the district meet, although they did not qualify on to state.

For the Tiger boys Clinton Warnol placed 25th overall, Levi Auxier was 36th and Derek Perona was 57th. For the Lady Tigers Mara Hofherr placed 30th.