The Austin girls cross country will have one youngster and one veteran competing in the Class AA girls state meet at St. Olaf College in Northfield 10 a.m. Saturday.

Austin senior Madison Overby will be running in her sixth state meet for the Packers and freshman Abby Lewis will be running in her second state meet. Lewis, who is feeling relaxed headed into the meet, said that Overby has had a big influence on the entire team.

“She’s my role model,” Lewis said. “She’s a leader and a captain. Everyone looks up to her.”

Overby showed leadership and a strong resolve this fall. Just like last year, she suffered an early injury that kept her out much of the year. This time it was a stress fracture in the first meet of the season. Overby ended up competing in just three meets all year.

“What makes it amazing is that she missed six weeks of training with a stress fracture,” Austin head coach Tony Einertson said. “The last two years she’s made [it to state] out of pure heart.”

Overby would like to be much healthier at this point in the season, but she’s happy to be back at state.

“I feel pretty good,” Overby said. “Obviously this wasn’t how the season was supposed to go, but I’m confident with my section meet results so I’m excited.”

It will be the final high school cross country meet for Overby, who burst onto the scene as a seventh grader and made the All-State team as an eighth grader. It will be a tough day for her when it all comes to an end after the meet.

“It’s sad,” Overby said. “It came to quick.”

Overby and Lewis are both hoping to run faster than 19 minutes at the state meet.