The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls cross country teams saw all of their hard work turn to gold Tuesday in Iowa City at the River Valley Conference Championship meet, as a bevy of titles, hardware and other accolades made their way back to the trophy case in Wellman.

After finishing as runners-up a season ago, the No. 1 in Class 2A Golden Hawk girls once again claimed the team championship with 49 points, beating No. 2 Monticello’s 66. The entire Mid-Prairie varsity lineup placed inside the top 30 to earn all-conference honors. Danielle Hostetler led the charge, finishing as individual runner-up in 19:59. Other Golden Hawk placers included Greta Sieren eighth, Abby Fleming 11th, Brooklyn Stutzman 12th, Phoebe Shetler 16th, Kendal Landstrum 19th, and Annika Poll 26th. They spoke after the meet about winning the team title. Shetler said, “Danielle (Hostetler) has been first, but second place on our team has been going back and forth, and it’s exciting each race to see. It’s just another motivator.”

Landstrum continued, “It’s good, friendly competition. We’re not afraid to pass each other and help push the team.”

Hostetler added, “This is pretty amazing. I’m pretty proud of these girls. They passed a lot of people through the race. Monticello beat us earlier in the year, so to beat them was great. We have a strong team and I’m excited for districts.”

In the boys race, what a night it was for Emmett Swartzentruber. Less than a month prior, he won his first varsity race on this course at the Clear Creek Classic, Tuesday, he took a victory lap. Sprinting past the field in a blisting 16:31, Swartzentruber was the individual RVC Champion, leading the No. 10 in 2A Golden Hawk boys to a third place team finish of 85 points. Tipton won the team title with 73. Swartzentruber was named River Valley Runner of the Year by the conference coaches. Other Golden Hawk finishers included all-conferencers Preston Yutzy in fourth and Max Swartzentruber in 16th, followed by Jesse Stultz 31st, Jacob Donaldson 33rd, Daniel Rodgers 35th and Thomas Flynn 42nd. Following action, Emmett and Max Swartzentruber and Jesse Stultz talked about the meet. Emmett Swartzentruber said, “We just ran here a couple of weeks ago, so we kind of knew what to expect. We were mainly working on that second and third mile. Not going out too hard and passing as many guys as possible. I feel like we executed that tonight. We’ve got a good group of guys here who are willing to work hard. This feels really good. It’s just a total honor to have this award. Last year, I didn’t even get to run at conference because I was sick. I have to give a lot of the glory to God because I can’t do it without him.”

Stultz continued, “It was important to get out to a good start in the first mile, in the second mile pick it up and get faster and in the third mile leave it all out there and try to get as many people as possible.”

Max Swartzentruber concluded, “Run your race first mile then start to pick it up during your second and pass as many as you can.”

Along with accolades for the athletes, Mid-Prairie head cross country coach Jeremy Meyers was named River Valley Conference Coach of the Year. The Golden Hawks will next run Thursday, October 19th at the state qualifier meet at Williamsburg.