The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls cross country teams experienced nervous anticipation, adversity and ultimately success Thursday at their Class 2A state qualifier meet in Pella. Both teams will be making return trips to the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge for state.

The No. 2 ranked Golden Hawk girls got through as meet team champions. The Hawks score of 49 was tested, but stood up to No. 5 Albia who finished second with 54. Mid-Prairie was led by individual meet champion Danielle Hostetler who collected her third state qualifier title in a time of 19:08. Other Golden Hawk finishes included Abby Fleming third, Phoebe Shetler ninth, Greta Sieren 17th, Dessa Poll 20th, Amara Jones 24th, and Tabitha Evans 33rd. This is the ninth consecutive year the Golden Hawks have made state as a team. After the race, the girls spoke about the day and how it felt to qualify. “After everyone had finished, it was a few minutes later and someone told us that we had won. It’s a pretty amazing feeling. We’re just so proud of all of the girls. We all worked hard for this. It felt really nice to be done. It’s time to rest up, then at state give it all we have and do the best we can. Get out there at state and have a jim-dandy race.”

The boys race saw the Hawks come through facing a set of circumstances that included a stacked field and a teammate who was unable to finish the race and needed medical attention on the course. Mid-Prairie finished third in the team standings, advancing to Fort Dodge with a team score of 81. Danville won the meet with their score of 61. The Golden Hawks were led on the day by Emmett Swartzentruber in sixth with a time of 17:15. Individual winner was AJ Bonnesen of Danville in 16:27. Other Mid-Prairie finishers included Preston Yutzy eighth, Nathan Wallington 17th, Blake Creed 24th, Daniel Rodgers 30th, Jordan Stock 33rd. The Golden Hawk boys have now qualified for state as a team back-to-back years. The boys spoke after the race about how it felt to qualify. “It feels really good. It feels like all that hard work has been paying off. It feels great to make it here with all these guys. It’s pretty relieving. If there is any team that has worked hard to get to state it’s us. Our guys team trained all-summer, all-winter, all-year-round. We had quite a few doubters for this race. People didn’t think we were going to make it. We stepped up. We’re proud. The hard work really paid off.”

The Mid-Prairie boys and girls cross country teams will next compete in the Class 2A State Meets Friday, October 28th in Fort Dodge.