Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie CSD Social Media
State qualifier day is here for local cross country teams. The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks travel to Williamsburg Thursday for their 2A meet. The Golden Hawks last ran at the River Valley Conference Championship meet last week, where the Golden Hawk girls won their fifth RVC team championship in the last six years. The Hawks placed their entire varsity lineup on All-Conference teams with Danielle Hostetler leading the way as runner-up, Greta Sieren eighth, Abby Fleming 11th, Brooklyn Stutzman 12th, Phoebe Shetler 16th, Kendal Landstrum 19th and Annika Poll 26th.
The Mid-Prairie boys also had a big night at the River Valley Championships, finishing third in the team race and placing three runners on All-Conference teams. Emmett Swartzentruber stole the show, winning the individual RVC title and taking home River Valley Runner of the Year honors. Other Mid-Prairie finishers included Preston Yutzy fourth, Max Swartzentruber 16th, Jesse Stultz 31st, Jacob Donaldson 33rd, Daniel Rodgers 35th and Thomas Flynn 42nd.
The Golden Hawk girls enter today’s meet ranked No. 1 in the latest Class 2A rankings from the Iowa Association of Track Coaches. The Hawks have two ranked runners in their lineup with seniors Danielle Hostetler No. 2 and Greta Sieren No. 30. The Mid-Prairie boys are No. 10 in the latest Class 2A poll. Emmett Swartzentruber checks in this week at No. 7. Both the Golden Hawk boys and girls qualified for state a season ago, the girls as meet champions and the boys with a third place team finish. This week, Golden Hawk head coach and River Valley Conference Coach of the Year Jeremy Meyers joined the KCII PM Sports Page to preview the meet. Meyers said, “They take three teams to state from each qualifying meet. If we go in and run our best race, everything should take care of business as far as the state meet. The kids are pretty familiar with the course. We have run there in the past and run well. Both boys and girls sides there are three ranked teams. For the girls it’s us, Van Meter and Williamsburg. For the boys Williamsburg is also ranked as well as us and Mediapolis. They’ll definitely push us. Hopefully we can come away with a couple of district championships going up against some tough competition.”
The Golden Hawks are joined at today’s event by Cardinal, Centerville, Central Lee, Davis County, East Marshall, Eddyville-Blakesburg, the No. 13 Mediapolis boys and their girls, Notre Dame West Burlington, the No. 17 Oelwein boys and their girls, the No. 5 Van Meter girls and their boys, West Liberty, Wilton and the home No.3 Raider boys and their girls. There are a total of 10 ranked runners in today’s boys and girls fields combined. Action gets underway at 4p.m. tonight at the Williamsburg Rec Center.