Former Mid-Prairie running standout and Iowa Gatorade runner of the year Marie Hostetler competed on collegiate running’s biggest stage Monday at the NCAA National Championship meet in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Hostetler, a freshman at Liberty University, is a part of the Flames team that captured the program’s first ever Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, and first ever bid to the NCAA Championship meet.
The Flames finished 26th of 31 competing schools with their score of 611, finishing ahead of Duke, Tulsa, West Virginia, San Francisco and Furman, and just behind Iowa State. BYU won the women’s national championship with their team score of 96. Liberty was led by Atlantic Sun individual champion and conference runner of the year Adelyn Ackley who took 66th place in a time of 21:15 in the 6K race. Other finishers for the Flames included Calli Doan 85th, Noel Palmer 182nd, Grace Dwyer 199th, Priscillah Kiplagat 213th and Marie Hostetler 215th.
Marie Hostetler and sister Anna, both members of the Liberty team, were named second team All-Atlantic Sun Conference this season. Marie Hostetler was named to the all-freshman team.