BLOOMSBURG — Troy freshman Christine Ward snuck into states by the tips of her toes at the District IV, Class AA Girls Cross-country Championships Thursday.

At the tape Ward (20:56.1) passed Midd-West's Ashlyn Hoffman (20:56.6) to earn the 10th and final individual state qualifying spot.

"It feels pretty nice," said Ward. "I worked pretty hard all season to get here, so I'm very grateful I made it."

That final sprint was part of a strong second half of the race that saw Ward 26th about 1,000 meters in to about 20th with 1,000 meters to go.

"Since it's a straight stretch through the race I wanted to conserve my energy," said Ward. "I wanted to take the hills pretty fast."

Hoffman had a pretty big gap on Ward at the start of the final 200, but the Trojan summoned up enough of a kick to reel her in.

"I didn't want to sprint, but I heard my coach say I needed to pass this girl, so I was like, 'I guess I will,'" explained Ward. 

This was the culmination of a season that saw Ward progress more and more as she got acclimated to the longer races at the varsity level.

"Before NTL's they put out the times to see what we were ranked as and I was 15th," Ward said. "I was like, if I work hard enough I could make it."

Troy took eighth as a team with Annika White (22:35.2) in 31st, Zoey Mann (24:07.6) taking 56th, Sheridan Wilcox (26:56.5) finished 84th, and Petra Miller (32:08.4) was 102nd.

In the Class AA boys race Troy was 10th with 234 points.

Isaac Gates (17:53.4) led the way in 24th, while RJ Bellinger (18:30.1) was 41st. Asa Kibbe (18:59.2) took 55th, Kyle Kibbe (19:08.8) came in 60th, and Nolan Osgood (19:08.9) finished 61st.

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