The current runners on the Bronco girls cross country team hadn’t even reached the seventh grade the last time the Falls qualified as an entire team for the state meet, which will be held this Saturday at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

The Broncos placed runner-up at last Thursday’s Section 7A meet to be one of 16 teams from Minnesota in the running for the girls Class A state championship, which starts at 1 p.m.

While the Falls last qualified the entire team for state in 2005 — when assistant coach Sheryl Hendrickson’s daughter, Alicia, a 2011 FHS graduate, was on the team as a seventh-grader — more than half of the teams in this year’s Class A girls meet also qualified a year earlier, including defending state champion Adrian and runner-up St. Cloud Cathedral.

“We’re an underdog,” said Broncos head coach Paul Hjelle. “No one expects us to do anything, so we’re going to go down there and have fun, and run loose and see what happens.”

Falls’ girls team has already had an opportunity this season to compete against the defending Class A individual state champion, Esko junior Marisa Shady, who also was the top finisher at last Thursday’s Section 7A meet, where the Eskimos took the top-three individual places and won the team title.

In addition to the top two schools from each Section qualifying for the state meet, the top 10 individuals from the eight Sections also qualify.

“Individually, you never know (what could happen at the state meet), because there’s so many good ones down there from the teams that have qualified and the individuals that have made it as well,” Hjelle said. “But as a team, I’d like to be around 10th to 12th. I’d think that would be a great accomplishment for this group.”

The Falls’ top individual finisher this season has been sophomore Sydney Raboin, who placed fifth at the Section 7A meet. Raboin, who was also on last season’s team as a freshman, said she “ran a lot this summer” and has been able to improve her time.

“I just want to work hard to get a personal record (at the state meet), and I hope our team does well, too, like 10th place,” Raboin said.

One Bronco girls runner already has experience running at the state meet. Sophomore Amy Auran qualified individually in 2010, when she finished 111th.

For this year’s state meet, Auran said she expects to benefit by being with other runners on the team.

“Last year I went down as an individual and I really had a tough time warming up by myself,” she said. “This year with the team I think it will be a bit more of an experience, because I’ll have more people to enjoy my time with, overall, better with the team, more people.”

Senior captain Kelsey Eibler will be the only runner the Bronco girls cross country team will lose to graduation. Hjelle said the experience of Saturday’s state meet could benefit the team for the future.

“How we’ll do on Saturday is going to have a big impact on where we take off next year,” he said. “This is going to be a big boost for us.

“If we can have a good performance down there on Saturday, it will carry right over to next year, because we have the whole group coming back.”

The Bronco girls cross country team is slated to leave for the state meet on Friday morning with a send-off planned at the school for 8:45 a.m.