RAPID CITY - The nationally ranked Sioux Falls Roosevelt girls and Yankton boys will be looking to defend their team titles at this weekend's Class AA state cross country meet, while being challenged by some area runners.

The Class AA championships begin with the girls run at

3 p.m. at Huron's Broadland Creek Golf Course and the boys race will begin at 4:15 p.m.

Roosevelt, the Greater Dakota Conference girls team champion and DyeStat's No. 1-ranked squad in the Heartland Region, comes into the meet with a powerful top four in Bailey Breems, Seanna Kautz, Megan Brown and Erin Hargens, and is widely considered the team to beat.

"Roosevelt is a very, very solid team," Rapid City Central head coach Loren Kambestad said. "They certainly deserve their national ranking."

Lost somewhat in Roosevelt's team brilliance is the fact that the 2007 individual girls champion, Sturgis sophomore Madeleine Takahashi, is back to defend her title on the same course, which will be anything but easy to do. Takahashi won the race last year in a time of 15 minutes, 33.5 seconds to beat Breems by 3 seconds. A repeat championship for Takahashi would be a phenomenal accomplishment as the top five individual finishers from the state meet last season - Takahashi, Breems, Yankton's Mariah Hofer, Rapid City Stevens' Annie Pfeifle and Yankton's Megan Hilson - are all back this year.

"There are a lot of excellent runners in South Dakota," Kambestad said. "It should be a great race."

The Raider girls are taking eight runners to the meet in Pfeifle, Mikayla Becker, Jessica Brandli, Sarah Coomes, Sara Johnston, Paige Kerr, Maleah Schad and Miranda Schmitt. Rapid City Central is taking 10 runners, led by seniors Ashley Williams and Madison Whitley. The Cobbler girls also include Chelsey Biegler, Megan Brink, Myrissa Clark, Beth Coates, Alicia Johnson, Megan Johnson, Sierra Reister and Jenna Stephens. Sturgis has five runners in Takahashi, Tera Potts, Taylor Fernen, Baillie Mutchler and Courtney Cassen. Spearfish has nine entries in Erika Gengler, Nicole Lamb, Roni Mollman, Aimee Owen, Elena Plummer, Elise Reed, Ariel Roberts, Becca Scheetz and Kelsey Senden. Douglas is taking eight runners - Kathryn Blumhardt, Casey Cole, Makala Diggs, Bailey Eich, Angel Grijalva, Codi Nelson, Alexandria Suhr and Tara Tadlock.

On the boys side, the Yankton team comes into the event looking to repeat, but there will be a new individual champion as Pierre's Travis Fitzke graduated last year. In fact, six of the top seven individuals from the 2007 race graduated. The top returning placer is Sioux Falls Washington's Josh Heitkamp - the 2008 Greater Dakota Conference boys' champion - who finished sixth last year. While the individual race is going to be fairly wide open, the Bucks and the GDC boys' champion Rapid City Stevens should be battling it out for the team title, according to Kambestad.

"I think Yankton and Stevens are going to be right there," Kambestad said. "They seem to be the top two overall teams in the state."

Top returning individual placers on the boys' side are Huron's Shaun Henderson (eighth), Pierre's Alec Espeland (ninth), Sioux Falls Lincoln's Brian Wiles (10th), Sioux Falls Roosevelt's Jake Arechigo (11th), Aberdeen Central's Josh Wilson (12th), Yankton's Jens Lillevold (13th), Sturgis' Damien Schuster (14th) and Yankton's Travis Brenner (15th). Stevens' Thomas Kjerengtroen finished 23rd last year and Raider sophomore Riley Coates took 24th as a member of the Douglas team.

The Patriots are taking a team of six to the 2008 championships, led by Coates' brother, Casey, Michael Barman, Nick Keller, Matt Nugent, Cole Stocking and Jordan Weeg. Central is taking Ian Hafner, Josh Hanks, Kyle Kessler, Sam Poppen, Lukas Potts, Eric Sanders, Nate Senesac and Tony Smoragiewicz. Stevens has eight runners - Kjerjengtroen, Riley Coates, Mike Scharn, Nate Richardson, Tanner Chleborad, Austin Hegert, Dakota Moore and Austin Wright. Sturgis is led by Schuster and will also bring Tyler Aldren, Steven Bales, Cody Cassen, Luke Larson, Hunter Sprague and Eric Teachout. Spearfish has Jared Hicks - a runner to watch in the individual race - and Graham Heberlig, Tim Poper, Ty Retzl, Zach Retzl, Tanner Trisori, Randy Vette and Michael Warwick.