Austin cross country runners Haley Splinter and Madison Overby are used to finishing near the front of the pack at meets.

On Saturday, their goal is no different — although the difficulty level will be much higher.

Splinter, a sophomore, and Overby, a seventh grader, will be running in the Class ‘AA’ state cross country meet at St. Olaf campus in Northfield this Saturday at 2 p.m.

According to Austin head coach Tony Einertson, there will be 50 girls running at state that have qualifying times within 15 seconds of each other and his two runners fall in that mix. He’s hoping they can find a way to shine.

“If they go out there and run their best, they should easily be in the top thirty in the state,” Einertson said. “Madison’s got a lot of courage and she’s got a lot of fight in her. It’s going to be fun to see what she does at this next level. Haley battled through quite a bit this year. She’s a fighter and she knew what her goal was from the start, which was to get back to state and do better than last year.”

Splinter has dealt with shin splints, an illness and an ankle injury this season, but she’s hoping to cap it off with a big positive — which would be to finish better than her finish of 46th place at state last season.

There’s at least one solid lesson she learned last year, which was her first time at the state meet.

“I learned that I should eat breakfast (before the race),” Splinter said. “This year, I’m not going to get as nervous, because I’ll have someone to talk to. (Madison) will know what we’re both going through and it’s not just me sitting in a room by myself. I think (I’ll do better this year) because I know what I’m doing this time.”

Overby is excited to get a chance to race at the highest level in her first year on varsity. She’s picked up a lot of lessons from Splinter this season.

“Haley’s a very good runner and she’s shown me how to smile and have fun,” Overby said. “I’m ready for it. I’ll have fun and run my best.”

While Overby has learned from Splinter, she’s also beaten her in a couple of races. As far as who finishes first on Saturday — it could be anyone’s guess.

“It depends on the meet,” Splinter said. “There’s some meets where she will beat me and then there’s some meets where I will beat her.”

The success of Splinter and Overby has had a good effect on the Austin girls cross country program. Einertson said the number of runners this season has almost doubled to 20. The work ethic has also improved.

“Haley, Madison and McKenzie (Besel) really stepped up in training and showed the girls this is what it has to be if we want to be good,” Einertson said. “The girls program has really turned around in the last couple of years.”

Einertson said it is the first time in at least 16 years that two Austin girls have advanced to state in the same year.