Foreign exchange student Alix Van Butsele has been a major contributor to the success of the River Ridge girls’ cross country program this season, and now will be representing her host school at the WIAA State Cross Country Championship this Saturday in Wisconsin Rapids.

With a sixth-place finish at last Saturday’s Division 3 Prairie du Chien Sectional, Van Butsele earned the fifth of five individual qualifying spots for this week’s state meet, beating out Southwestern/Benton’s Paisly Williams by 10 seconds.

Van Butsele ran the 5,000-meter race in a time of 19:44.0, which was nearly one minute behind sectional champion Elizabeth Curtis of Westby.

While Darlington and Fennimore finished first and second to capture the two state team qualifying spots, the River Ridge girls finished fifth of 14 teams for the program’s best sectional placing in school history.

Finishing 18th in the field of 105 competitors was River Ridge junior Leah Patterson with a time of 20:51.7. She was followed by freshman teammate Lindsay Burmeister in 29th (21:46.8), junior McKenzie Taylor in 36th (22:24.0) and sophomore Eden Thornton in 66th (24:48.9).

On the boys’ side, River Ridge finished 16th of 16 competing team with a score of 432.

Leading the Timberwolves with a time of 19:34.2 to finish 59th of 120 runners was senior Mason Pecinovsky. He was followed by senior teammate Colton Kirschbaum in 96th (21:52.6), sophomore Bryce Mason in 111th (22:48.1), senior Luke Breuer in 115th (23:05.9) and sophomore Adam Williams in 118th (28:54.8).

The WIAA State Boys and Girls Cross Country Championships will be held at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday, with the Division 3 girls’ race schedule to begin at 1:45 p.m.