The West will likely dominate again, with teams from this half of the state filling both the boys and girls polls.
Watford City holds fourth in the girls poll this season, the strength of the area's lead returning runner, Sibee Jokela.
Jokela, a senior this season, finished second in the state tournament last year in Jamestown, 12 seconds behind then-freshman Syndey Kraft of Rugby. The two were the only girls to finish in under 16 minutes at state, and they are again ranked 1 and 2 in the preseason polling.
The Watford City girls feature a deep team that includes Kade Ross, Jokela, Marti Quale, Kristen Stenehjem, Olivia Sundeen and Jayme Johnson. Tioga's Kelsey Lambrecht cracks the top 10 in the preseason polling. She's a two-time all-state selection and three-time all-region. Lambrecht finished 12th last season in the state tournament in a time of 16:15.04.
Joining Lambrecht will be sophomore Shayna Otteson in her first year running varsity. On the boys' side, Tioga will feature junior Cody Otteson in his first year running cross country, Josh Olson, Isaac Black and Denver Ruppert.
"We're few in number right now," said TTC coach Patty Skarphol.
Watford City sophomore Hayes Feilmeiler returns to be the fifth-ranked boys runner in the state after finishing 10th in last year's state meet. Joining him on the Wolves will be Jeremiah Beard and Ben Gumke.
"Mostly for this season, our girls team is looking all right, we're hoping to go top five at state," said Watford City coach Greg Brown. "On the boys team, we're young. We've got a first-year junior and a first-year sophomore, so we're going to try to have fun and build up the team there."
New Town and Parshall will again be expected to dominate the state in both the boys and girls competitions. New Town is ranked second in both boys and girls, and Parshall is ranked fifth in boys and third in girls.
The two teams hold one quarter of the ranked runners in the state.
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