One of the ultimate compliments in sport is being known as a “great teammate”. Mid-Prairie’s Ana Fleming is the definition of the term. The Golden Hawk senior joined a select group of cross country runners in the history of the sport in the state of Iowa. With the Golden Hawk’s class 2A team state championship in Fort Dodge on Saturday, Fleming became only the eighth runner in the history of Iowa to be a member of a state championship squad all four years of her high school career. The sport’s first state championships were held at the University of Iowa in 1922 with the state officially sanctioning cross country in 1930, making Fleming one of just eight to accomplish the feat in nearly a century of competition. She and her dad, Mid-Prairie assistant coach Aaron Fleming spoke Saturday in Fort Dodge about the accomplishment. Ana said “Knowing that it was my last race, I knew that I had to keep going and give it my all. Our first year when we won, it was the best thing ever. Then we did it again and it was like Wow! Last year was amazing winning by one point. This year was like we’re going to win, and we’re going to crush everybody, and we did. If it weren’t for the rest of my team these four years, I would just be someone who does decent at state, but I have always had a group of amazing, hard working girls helping me get into this group of not very many people.”

Coach Fleming added, “Ana of course always performs well in the big meets and she came through today to be our fifth runner. She had a stress fracture late in the spring so to even get to this point, she spent all summer in her grandma’s living room on an elliptical grinding out hour after hour of cross training to be able to be at this point. I am super proud of her and it’s a really good feeling to see her up there on the podium for the fourth year in a row. It’s really fun to be a part of a tradition of excellence like that. It’s fun to see middle school girls who know that’s what the expectation is and they come to high school ready to work.”

Fleming finished in 25th in this year’s race. She was 15th in 2018 and 11th in 2019 at state. Her highest finish in any of the four years in Fort Dodge was her freshman year in 2017 when she took ninth place.