The Austin cross country team sent its first girl to state in 16 years when freshman Haley Splinter finished in the top-10 at the section meet to earn a trip to the Class ‘AA’ state meet, which takes place next Saturday St. Olaf College in Northfield.

Splinter ran through wet conditions at the Section 1AA meet in Owatonna Thursday as heavy rains filled the course. Her time was about 11 seconds below her norm, but it was good enough for sixth place overall.

“This is big for our girls program and it’s big for Haley,” Austin head coach Tony Einertson said. “She had a tough meet in Owatonna earlier this year, but she ran much better at the Big Nine meet and she was confident today. She stayed relaxed and ran well.”

The Austin girls team was 14th out of 14 teams and the boys finished 11th out of 14 squads.

Christian Folken was the top boys finisher as he took 18th place.

“Christian’s been sick for the last couple of weeks and today was a good run for him,” Einertson said.

The last Austin time an Austin girls ran in the state meet was in 2003, when Jessica Maxfield ran in her third straight meet. She finished 25th overall that year.

Austin results

Boys: Christian Folken (18th, 17:46.4); Tim Erickson (42nd, 18:25.8); Ben Bachmeier (45th, 18:29.1); Zach Rausch (81st, 19:37.1); Nate Schwab (94th, 20:24.3); Joe Gerber (95th, 20:25.2)

Girls: Haley Splinter (sixth, 15:43.3); Kaitlynn Carrol (68th, 17:56.1); Martha McDermott (80th, 18:35.3); Lauren Thompson (89th, 19:10.4); Katelyn Harder (92nd, 19:32.8); Abby Snater (95th, 19:48.3); Keely Zynda (96th, 20:05.7)