The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk Middle School girls cross country program is celebrating gold this fall after winning the Class 2A state team championship at the Washburn Classic State Cross Country meet in Ankeny. The Golden Hawks bested 17 other teams competing with their score of 45 points. Williamsburg was second with 68. Marie Yoder had the best finish, placing 10^th with her time of 13:24 on the two mile course. Other Golden Hawks included Tessa Brokaw 16^th, Rachel Hostetler 19^th, Brooklyn Stutzman 26^th, Kyrie Poll 75^th, Addison Miller 125^th, Gwen Wunderlich 133^rd, Brynna O’Rourke 136^th, Skylar Swift 137^th, Samantha Wunderlich 139^th and Fiona McClellen 143^rd. This week, the team spoke with KCII sports about how it felt to win the state championship. “Our coaches told us that we had a pretty good shot at winning since we were undefeated. (That day) the boys had gotten their results already but we were initially told that we probably weren’t going to get our scores until the day after. When we heard that we were all disappointed because then we weren’t going to be able to celebrate it with our team. Our coach Melissa came up with the championship plaque and I was like ‘oh my goodness!’ we were all screaming. We all started freaking out. Oh my gosh we won state!”

This is the first state championship for the middle school girls program since the 8^th grade team of Marie Hostetler, Kyleigh Graham, Abbagail Evans, Jordan Hammen and Ainsley Shaw won the championship in 2015.