It was an emotional Saturday as the Clinton High School boy's and girl's cross country teams punched their tickets to this weekend's state tournament meet in Peoria.

Coach Rachel Anderson-Lyons indicates each team was aware of the projections going into the event in Decatur and knew they had to run extremely well to make the cut. 

Coach Anderson-Lyson gives top-runner Makayla Koeppel props for setting the tone on the girl's side but says her other runners quote - "ran out of their minds".

On the boy's side, Drew Moser led the way but Coach Anderson-Lyons gives Colin Jameson a lot of credit as he was tripped up at the start-finish line and was still able to recover and finish where he was projected, a huge victory that helped the boys.

After waiting to find out whether they made the State meet, Coach Anderson-Lyons says there were a lot of tears of joy once they found out they made it to Peoria.

Coach Anderson-Lyons reached out to her team at the start of the day yesterday (Monday) letting them know how she was proud and thankful for the kids.

While going into the meet, rain was forecast, she says they lucked out and didn't have to deal with too many elements.

The girls run at 9 am and the boys run at 10 am Saturday morning.