The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks and Washington Demons put together excellent performances Tuesday at the Mount Pleasant Cross Country Invitational.
Mid-Prairie won both team championships in the Class B division, with the girls finishing over 70 points lower than second-place Mediapolis and the Golden Hawk boys 13 points better than Danville.
Washington would take the boys’ team title in Class A, 23 points clear of second-place Fort Madison, while the Demons were only 11 points behind the Bloodhounds for the girls’ team crown.
Mid-Prairie and Washington produced all four of the individual division champions as well. Golden Hawks senior Emmett Swartzentruber won the Class B race and had the best overall boys’ time of 16 minutes 23 seconds, while sophomore Brooklyn Stutzman was the girls’ winner in Class B in 19 minutes 29 seconds.
Junior Iris Dahl won her third straight race for the Demons by taking the girls’ title in Class A, crossing the finish line in 19:35, while senior teammate Tyler Alderton made it back-to-back victories by winning the boys’ Class A crown in 16:33.
Mid-Prairie’s Rachel Hostetler was the girls’ runner-up in Class B in 20:04, with fellow freshman Tessa Brokaw was fifth in 20:52; senior Dessa Poll was sixth in 21:32; and junior Hannah Rodgers took ninth in 21:45.
Junior Rebekah Wallington and sophomore Kyrie Poll also had top-20 times in their division for the Golden Hawks, while junior Ivy Reschly finished in the top 30.
Senior Preston Yutzy was second for the Mid-Prairie boys and fifth in Class B by clocking in at 16:41. Sophomore Max Swartzentruber was ninth in the division in 17:38, while junior Luke B was 14th. Senior Thomas Flynn, junior Jesse Stultz and sophomore Reece Waters also had top-30 times for the Hawks.
Washington actually had the top 3 boys’ times in Class A, with Andrew Rees winning the silver medal in 16:49 and fellow junior Sawyer Tschantz taking the bronze 22 seconds later.
Sophomore Ethan Hotchkiss rounded out the top 10 in Class A with a time of 17:50, while freshman Parker Tschantz just missed that group but was joined by senior Jace Sanders, junior Ivan Rangel, sophomore Fletcher Brower and freshman Teague Miller in posting top-30 times for the Demons.
After Dahl, Lauren Horak was next-best for the Washington girls and was eighth in Class A in 20:56, with fellow senior Kendall Hinrichsen only one spot and eight seconds behind her. Junior Angeline Anderson and seniors Quincy Griffis, Isabella Lujan and Alyvia Anderson also all represented the Demons in the top 20.
Columbus got a good showing from their boys’ team at Mount Pleasant, taking fourth in Class B. Senior Ty Muniz was sixth individually in 16:50, while sophomores Cade Storm and Ryan Villa also cracked the top 20.
Senior Bryan Tlatenchi, sophomore Drake Marin and freshman Elias Gonzalez Bravo also ran top-30 times in Class B for the Wildcats, while sophomore Iris Garza and junior Isabel Rendon led the girls’ team by finishing 11th and 14th, respectively.
WACO had another couple of excellent individual efforts, with Jude Dykstra finishing third among Class B boys in 16:34 and fellow junior Gavin Slagel also running a top-20 time.
Senior Keiran Luitjens and junior Tristan Luitjens finished inside the top 40 in Class B for the Warrior boys, while freshman Josie Dykstra was seventh on the girls’ side in 21:38 and senior Elyssa Graber also cracked the top 20.
Senior Kohlby Newsom was the standout performer for Winfield-Mount Union with a 12th-place time in the Class B boys’ race, while freshman Ashlyn Bender represented the Wolves in the girls’ competition and put up a time of just over 27-and-a-half minutes.
Senior Vivian Zaruba’s top-20 time in Class B paced the Lone Tree girls, while sophomore Brock Nebergall made the top 30 to lead the Lion boys.
The Sigourney Savages were racing Monday at BGM, with Addison Yates’ runner-up time of 23:28 leading the Savages and freshman Brynn Clarahan and fellow junior Ellie Yates finishing only tenths of a second behind her to take third and fourth place, respectively.
Junior Troy Klett also won the silver medal in the boys’ race for Sigourney in 19:25, while Keota’s Hunter Grandstaff clocked in at just over 26-and-a-half minutes.