Tom's tips: Area's best runners aim for state

There are all sorts of Minnesota State High School League-sponsored state tournaments throughout the school year.
One of the very few that has free admission is the state cross country meet Saturday at St. Olaf College in Northfield.
That makes it a bargain.
As usual, the Times' area had a slew of athletes qualify, including the St. Cloud Cathedral boys and girls teams, the Albany boys and girls teams and the Annandale girls.
Cathedral's and Annandale's teams came through in Section 5A at the Pierz Golf Course.
Albany's teams made it in Section 6A at the Long Prairie Country Club.
Area athletes also came through Section 8-2A at the Little Falls Country Club.
Beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday with the Class 2A boys race, area athletes compete for all-state medals.
You can see this about it: it's well worth the price of admission.
It's a big week for volleyball, with section finals culminating Saturday.
And that's also the case for prep football. Here's a quick look at events of note:
Today
Section 6-2A volleyball, at Sauk Rapids.
Melrose (10-10) and Pierz (21-7) play at 6 p.m. and Sauk Centre (18-3) and Albany (14-13) play afterward. Play-downs continue until the section final at 2 p.m. Saturday at the College of St. Benedict.
Tuesday
Section 8-3A volleyball, Alexandria at Sartell, 7 p.m.
The beauty of dividing the section into halves and then cross-bracketing them gives the Sabres (No. 1 South, 19-7) a home match against Alexandria (No. 3 North, 21-7).
Alexandria beat Sartell 3-0 during the regular season.
Friday
Section 6-3A football, Albany (9-1) vs. New London-Spicer (10-0), 8 p.m. at St. Cloud State's Husky Stadium. It's a rematch and it'll be a good one.
Saturday
Section 8-4A football, Sartell (10-0) vs. Alexandria (9-1), 1:30 p.m. at Clemens Stadium, Collegeville.
Sartell tries to get back to state for the first time since 2007.
This is the opinion of Times prep sports coordinator Tom Elliott. Contact him at 259-3661 or at telliott@stcloucloudtimes.om.
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