The Islanders earned that opportunity after finishing third in the Class A, District 2 Meet in Lincoln.

The Grand Island boys will compete in Class A, which starts at approximately 7 p.m. 12:30pm Friday at Kearney Country Club.

GISH coach Megan Roach said she is excited to take down this group for a reason, especially the seniors on the roster. Those seniors include Kaden Boltz, Ruben Caceres-Perez, Trajon Geiser and Ashon Willey.

“This is a special group for me as the seniors were freshmen when I started coaching here four years ago,” Roach said. “It’s a good group that I really enjoyed coaching, so I’m going to miss them a lot after this year.”

Jorge Carpio, Nolan Goodman and Brenten Sidders are the other members competing at the state meet for the Islanders.

Boltz led Grand Island in the majority of games this year, while finishing in the top five in most of the games. He won the Northwest Invitation and the Kearney Invitation before finishing fourth in the Class A boys race at the UNK Invitation. Last year he finished 19th at the state meet.

“Kaden has had a very strong season for us. That would be great if he can get into the top 10. That’s a goal he set for himself after finishing 19th last year,” Roach said.

She said she was also impressed by Caceres-Perez and Carpio and would like to see them win a medal as well.

“That would be nice to see if Ruben and Jorge can sneak in there too. Ruben has been consistent for us and Jorge only continues to improve as the year progresses,” she said.

As for team goals, Roach said she wants the Islanders to finish better than their 10th-place finish in last year’s meet.

“I would like to be in the top ten, but I think we can finish in the top eight if we perform well,” Roach said. “I would like to see that happen.”

Katie Johnsen is the only Islander girl to qualify for the state competition.

The Islander junior will be competing in her second straight state meet as she finished 64th last year. Roach said she is excited to see her qualify for the state meet.

“She had a great season and like Jorge, she has continued to improve throughout the season,” Roach said. “She looks a lot stronger this season. Hopefully she can finish strong for us and finish higher than last year.”

Olivia Chapman will be the lone Northwest State qualifier.

The Viking senior will compete in her fourth state meet, becoming the first NW state qualifier since Roach, formerly Megan Billington, competed at state from 2011 to 2014.

Chapman qualified with the Viking girls when they qualified in 2021 and has been an individual qualifier the past three years.

Chapman will compete in the Class B girls race, which will start around 1 p.m