Now that Thursday’s meet in Atlantic is in the rear-view mirror, ADM cross country turns its full attention to one of the most important events of the season. The Tigers will run in the Raccoon River Conference meet at 5 p.m. this afternoon at Terrace Hills in Altoona.

ADM head coach David Zwank didn’t want to discount any of the Tigers previous meets as not being valuable, but stressed that those events served more as prep races for today’s race and beyond. Whatever techniques, strategies and mental states ADM’s runners have experimented with prior to this point must be packaged into their best effort yet.

“That’s to me that’s the vision of what our season is gearing towards, is the three most important meets are the conference meet, the state qualifier and the state meet,” Zwank said. “And for our JV kids in particular, the conference meet is [their] final meet.”

ADM is part of the state qualifying race on Thursday, Oct. 23 at the Perry Cross Country Club, where the Tigers raced last Tuesday.