As two Austin juniors prepare to run in the Minnesota Class AA State Cross Country Meet in Northfield Saturday, they both have a much different perspective.

Abby Lewis is running in her fourth state meet, while Henry Hinchcliffe will be running in his first ever state meet. Lewis is coming off an eighth place finish at the Section 1AA meet where she finished with a time of 19:02.9.

She’s hoping she can duplicate that time at the state meet.

“I’m really excited to make it back again,” Lewis said. “This year has been kind of up and down and I’m excited now that I’ve made it. Going into state, I’d like to stay in the top 30 and if I can get close to 19 minutes that would be great.”

Lewis has a lot of state meet experience, but she said the Section 1AA meet is also a tough meet to run in.

“It’s kind of hard with our section because there’s a lot of fast people,” Lewis said. “Getting out fast in the beginning is definitely important so you don’t get boxed in.”

Hinchcliffe finished in fourth place with a time of 16:26.5 at the Section 1AA meet and he’s looking forward to running at state. Hinchcliffe said the team has trained harder this year than it had in years past and he’s also had a help from a lot of his teammates in practice.

“I’m very excited. It’s a huge honor going to state and representing our school and the town. It’s unreal and I’m really happy with it,” Hinchcliffe said. “I had a lot more people to push me this year. Brock Lawhead, Raymond [Lucero], Mitch Mayer, Blake and Alex Petrik, Jackson Marsh, Jacob Ziegler, Ryan Walters and towards the end of the season Meti Omod all just pushed me and they kept me going faster. I think having a bigger team helped this year.”

While he had a successful season this fall for the Packers, Hinchcliffe wasn’t exactly making plans for going to state until he crossed the finish line at the Section 1AA meet and made it official.

“I kind of had to battle and up until the last 200 or 300 I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to state or not,” Hinchcliffe said. “You’ve got to battle as hard as you can to get to state.”

Lewis has enjoyed watching Hinchcliffe improve as a runner over the past couple of seasons and she’s looking forward to having a teammate running at the state meet.

“It’s been awesome watching Henry run and it’s exciting to go with him this year. He’s put in a lot of work,” Lewis said. “The boys team has done really well this season and I’m proud of them and our girls team has been really supportive and we’ve pushed each other in practice.”

Lewis will run at 10 a.m. at St. Olaf College in Northfield Saturday and Hinchcliffe will run at 11 a.m.