The Mid-prairie boys cross country team qualified for the state cross country meet last night at Columbus Junction.

The Golden Hawks had one runner finish in the top 10. Jared Draper was 10th individually qualifying for state, but the whole team finished in the mandatory top three spots, as they finished second over all.

Other scorers for Mid-Prairie were Ryan Errthum in 14th, Jake O’Donnell in 15th, Zeb Schwartz in 27th and Ty Feigenspan in 32nd.

After the race Draper tried to find the words to describe the feeling of going to State.

“I felt really good, at the end I kind of died a little bit. At the end I was a little nervous with the scoring, but we ended up runner-up, which is better than we thought we’d do” Draper said. “I just don’t know the words to describe how I feel, I want to cry, but I just don’t want to cry, I don’t know, I feel great.”

The Golden Hawks had 96 points, while the winning team Tipton won the meet with 56. Columbus Junction was also at the meet and finished in 11th with 279 points.

Golden-Hawk head coach Mark Hostetler says it’s how teams handle their nerves that get them to where they are.

“A lot of teams, if you have one or two kids that don’t run well you can be out of it, and if you have two or three that run better than expected you can be way up there.” Hostetler said. “A lot of it is nerves at districts, you have a lot of kids who run well, and kids who can handle nerves, and some kids who need to learn how to handle nerves.”

The Golden Hawks will run this weekend in Fort Dodge for the State cross country meet.