OTTUMWA — Leading men and leading ladies – there’s no need for a red carpet run through for this production.

Straight to the finish line for these stars — and they’re definitely worth the price of admission.

The big-ticket finale up at Fort Dodge at the state cross country meet today will separate the box-office blasts from the big-screen busts.

State championships will be the winner’s golden trophies.

Ottumwa’s Kevin Lewis could be standing tall up at the “podium.”

Lewis will attempt to win Ottumwa’s second-ever officially sanctioned state title when runners from all over the Hawkeye state converge on Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Webster County.

Lewis, a Bulldog junior, has been untouched this season, having won all nine meets he’s competed in. His closest competitor was Zach Baker of Eddyville-Blakesburg, a fifth-place state finisher last year up at Fort Dodge. Baker, a good friend of Lewis and training partner, finished five seconds back at Oskaloosa last month.

“We’re going up there with one thing in mind and that’s to win state,” said Ottumwa head coach Jeff Smith.

Ottumwa has crowned one Iowa High School Athletic Association state title winner — John Beebe in 1934, four years after the first state meet was sanctioned by the IHSAA.

Gerald Vincent won the first two state meets Iowa has ever had in prep cross country from 1922-1923.

Lewis is ranked fourth in Class 4A behind the top three finishers at the 2008 state meet. Those runners are 2008 state title winner J.T. McCarthy of Burlington and his Grayhound runner-up state finisher Marshall Moyer. Iowa City’s West’s Frank Canady placed third last year at state but won’t run. He came down with the flu and was unable to qualify.

Lewis finished 67th at the state meet last year as a sophomore, but vaulted himself to the front of the 4A pack with hard work and determination.

“He’s a perfectionist,” said Smith.

The transformation Lewis has made from middle-of-the-traffic state runner to leader of the pack has his sights set on the big prize.

“It’s up for grabs, there are about five people that can get it. I’m one of those five, so we’ll see,” said Lewis.