They won't run with teams, but they'd form a competitive one if they could group together.

The Midland Athletic League's top five runners - Mohawk junior Drew Trusty (6th at the Youngstown Regional), Hopewell-Loudon junior Tyler Wise (9th at Tiffin Regional), St. Wendelin senior Mark Berton (13th at Tiffin Regional), Calvert senior Jamison Brickner (15th at Tiffin Regional) and Lakota junior Kyle Babcock (16th at Tiffin Regional) - all will run in Saturday's Division III state cross country meet at Scioto Downs.

"I'll know some people down there. I'll know people, so hopefully I'll get in the [starting] box with them," Wise said.

That won't happen. The area's runners are spread out among the 26 starting boxes, with just Trusty and Brickner toeing the line side by side in the 'V' box. Wise is in the 'A' box, Berton starts in the 'J' box and Babcock heads out from the 'P' box.

But no matter where he starts, Mohawk coach Brock Cleveland said the plan for Trusty is simple: Find fast competition and run with them.

"He's poised, he's ready to run this race. He's been ready to run this race since last year. He got done [last year] and he didn't feel like he had his effort down there, so he's ready to be back down there and give it another try," Cleveland said.

"From a running standpoint, you always want to be going out on your best note, and he didn't feel like that was his best race [last year when he took 34th]," he said. "He wants to go down there and prove himself and do better."

Hopefully, according to Calvert coach Stewart Behm, Brickner will be right there with him since they'll start next to each other.

"Actually that will be good because they've run very similar over the first part of the race all year," he said. "Actually, for the first mile and half to two miles, they run a very similar race, so actually that'll be kind of good that they're starting out together."

And despite Brickner being a first-timer at state, Behm said he believes the senior won't get caught up up in the frenzy of state.

"I'm not concerned because he's matured a lot as a runner this past year; not just has he gotten time-wise and physically better, but he's matured as far as what to expect in races," Behm said. "He's been in races before where kids have gone out fast, and he's not going to get caught up in the hype. He's going to run his race Saturday."

And that means being smart and not sprinting off at the start and then having nothing left at the end.

Experience in the state meet taught that lesson to Wise.

"They always say that you've got to watch out, you're going to get sucked into that first mile down at state 'cause the crowd's screaming, and you don't believe it, you're like, 'Well, I can control myself, I'm a good pace.' You think you're walking out there and you're sprinting as fast as you can go,' he said.

"Just knowing how that, I think, is really going to help me this year to control myself and maybe even run a better race than I did last year," said Wise, who wound up 42nd last year.

Lakota coach Don Windom said Babcock knows all about that too after finishing 85th as a sophomore, adding that the junior plans on last year's trip paying off with a better result in 2009.

"He can easily get sucked into that faster run, ... and he was telling me he feels he needs to go out a little conservative, just so he doesn't go out too hard, and then really go after it in middle of the race," Windom said. "He's been there, he knows what it feels like, he knows what it's like when the people go out, so he's got a realistic view of what he needs to do.

"He knows he's not going to go down there and set any world records or anything. The goal was to make it to state, and he really wants to run a solid race and just put an exclamation point on his season, if he can."

For Berton and Brickner, that exclamation will come at the end of careers as the seniors run their final prep race in their first trip to the year-end meet.

And as with Trusty, Berton's trip there comes with the chance at a bit of retribution.

He'd planned on making it as a junior, but an ankle injury hobbled him in 2008, helping him sharpen his focus during the offseason and provide goals for races, said his father and team assistant coach, Peter Berton.

"He decided this year he was going. It seems like the races he did the best in, he motivated himself somehow to do something - he was going to stick with somebody and run with somebody, and when he had that plan, he did well," coach Berton said.

"I'm just glad that he's going to get the opportunity to go down and run at state," he said. "It's something he'll remember forever."