Our third biggest athletic story from the most recent academic year for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks takes us to the cross country course where the Hawks have found much success in recent years. The Mid-Prairie boys spent much of the season ranked in class 2A according to the Iowa Track and Field Coaches Association, making their first appearance September 8th at No. 15.

The Golden Hawks finished fourth at the River Valley Conference championship meet in Iowa City, led by a 10th place finish from Jamison Stutzman. Mid-Prairie entered the Williamsburg state qualifier meet ranked No. 11 in 2A, facing a field that included No. 5 Williamsburg, and No. 7 Danville/New London. The Golden Hawks finished in fifth place as a team with a score of 107 points, just missing a team spot at state. However, a pair of Mid-Prairie runners qualified for Fort Dodge as individuals.

Stutzman, a junior, advanced to state with a ninth place finish in a time of 17:37. Freshman Nathan Wallington also punched his ticket to state taking 14th in a time of 17:47. The two runners and head coach Mark Hostetler spoke with KCII after qualifying. Stutzman and Wallington said “It was definitely a faster course than others we have run, without many sharp turns. Our goal was not to go out hard the first mile. At districts, a lot of guys go out too hard. We wanted to pick it up in the second mile and start picking people off. It’s an amazing feeling when you know you made state. It feels great because of everything that we trained all year for.”

Hostetler added, “They did extremely well. If you go by times for the year and how they were ranked, Jamie was ranked in the teens and Nathan wasn’t ranked. Lucas (Bontrager) also just missed by one spot. This was one of our best races of the season. They were really going after it. I was really proud of the way we pushed. With a half mile to go, our top four were all in the top 15.”

Other Mid-Prairie finishers at Williamsburg included Lucas Bontrager 16th, Chandler Hershberger 25th, Mose Yoder 46th, Robert Nagy 69th and Jordan Stock 73rd.

In Fort Dodge, Wallington finished 60th in a time of 17:47, Stutzman was 129th in 19:42.