WARWICK West State School cross country star Sophie Follett has plenty of family support in training as she approaches her third (and final) primary school state championships on Sunday in Ipswich.

Sophie is a school captain at Warwick West and leads by example when it comes to cross country and athletics.

She won the Southern Downs 12 years 3km cross country at Allora this year and finished third at Darling Downs trials.

Last weekend, she fine tuned her form for Sunday's event with a time of 15 minutes, 32 seconds in the 4km junior dash at the Gold Coast Marathon. The time put her sixth in a field of 106 in the 11-12 years age group, an outstanding effort as she is only 11.

She was 13th overall in a field of 233 girls in the dash after running a time 52 seconds faster than in the same event last year.

Sophie wasn't the only family member who ran at the Gold Coast: Her mother Deb Follett and sister Emily were in the front quarter of finishers in their age groups in the 5.7km run.

Her father Ian and younger sister Zoe also run and all five have run the Park to Park in Ipswich over 5km and 10km distances and the 10km in the Bridge to Brisbane.

After a 19th place in the state championships at Roma in 2011 and 18th last year in Cairns, she isn't pressuring herself too much this year.

"I want to finish in the top 20 this year," she said.

"I love running; the longer distances are my best."

"My teacher Selena Vickers encourages me a lot. It was good she ran so well at the Gold Coast."

While most of her training on the road is with family members, Sophie has one session at week under the direction of Warwick High teacher Nathan Rogers.

She is also following a training program set by Darling Downs Sport for each runner competing on Sunday.

Sophie might prefer cross country but is no slouch when it comes to middle distance events.

Last year, she won the 800m at the Darling Downs championships in 2.42 and was 17th in the state championships with 2.44.