We continue our review of the last decade for Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk athletics with a look at the 2015-16 school year.

The Golden Hawk boys and girls track and field teams had a big spring, sending a combined 14 events, seven each to state at the blue oval in Des Moines. Headlining Mid-Prairie’s time at Drake Stadium was Anna Hostetler who captured the state title in the 1500m. Other top finishes for the Golden Hawks included Hostetler third in the 3000 and seventh in the 800, 15th for the 4×100 team of Ali Butters, Alex Rath, Abby Tornow and Emily Cayton, 15th for the distance medley team of Cayton, Rath, Greta Schmidt and Hostetler, 21st for the 4×800 team of Tornow, Schmidt, Hannah Van Roekel and Maddi Zahradnek and 22nd for Alex Rath in the 200.

At the boys meet, Levi Duwa was third in 2A in the shot put to lead the way. Other finishes for the Golden Hawks included 10th place for the 4×800 team of Peyton Miller, Andrew Schwartz, Quinn Schmidt and Luke Sigler, 12th for Floyd Evans in the 3200, 13th for Sigler in the 1600, 15th for the distance medley team of Schmidt, Keaton Duwa, Cary Schaefer and Miller, 19th for Schwartz in the 800 and 21st in the discus for Levi Duwa.

It was another multiple state qualifier year for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk wrestling team. The Hawks sent Duncan McCain at 113lbs and Levi Duwa at 220lbs to the state meet in Des Moines. Duwa entered the tournament with a 44-4 overall record and rolled all the way to the state championship match, becoming the first Golden Hawk to advance that deep into the tournament since 1993. He fell in overtime in the title bout to Gavin Dinsdale of Webster City by a 3-1 score, ending his season with a 47-5 overall record. McCain went 1-1 in his time at state.

The Mid-Prairie boys and girls cross country teams both qualified for the state meet in Fort Dodge. The Mid-Prairie boys finished in fourth place with a team score of 130 points. Peyton Miller led the way for the Golden Hawks in 15th place with a time of 17:15. Other finishers for the Golden Hawks included Luke Sigler 16th, Ryan Errthum 25th, Floyd Evans 28th, Andrew Schwartz 46th, Brent Foster 58th and Marshal Teets 80th. The Mid-Prairie girls were eighth overall in 2A with their team score of 213 points. Top finisher for the Golden Hawks was Anna Hostetler in eighth with her time of 19:48. Other Mid-Prairie runners included Greta Schmidt 40th, Maddi Zahradnek 42nd, Hannah Van Roekel 47th, Kessa Jones 76th, Abby Tornow 88th and Kate Cavanagh 89th.

The Mid-Prairie girls basketball team punched their ticket to the state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The Golden Hawks finished with a 16-9 overall record, going 11-7 in the River Valley Conference. The Hawks got to Des Moines for the first time in three seasons by going through Albia and Central Lee in the first two rounds of the playoffs before edging South Tama 50-45 in the regional final in Oskaloosa.

Mid-Prairie fell in the state quarterfinals to top three ranked Center Point-Urbana 48-43, despite holding a lead most of the way in the contest. Ali Butters led Mid-Prairie with 291 points on the year, sixth best in the River Valley Conference. Addie Rath pulled in a team best 121 rebounds. Alex Rath led the team with 74 assists, second best in the RVC. Emily Cayton’s 60 steals led Mid-Prairie and were second best in the conference.

The Mid-Prairie football team made their way back to the playoffs for the fifth straight season. Mid-Prairie was 7-2 in the regular season, posting a 5-0 start to the year for the first time since 1976. They would go 5-2 in district play. The Golden Hawks traveled to Prairie City Monroe and beat the Mustangs in the first round of the playoffs 28-10 before falling to Albia 42-0 in the second round. Highlights from the year included Ryan Cortum connecting with Levi Duwa on an 85-yard touchdown pass at Sigourney Keota, at the time, the second longest passing play in Mid-Prairie history. Cortum finished with nine touchdown throws on the year, eighth most in school history for a single year, four of them came in the win over SK. His 279 yard output against the Cobras is seventh highest all-time for a single game. Cameron Tolander led the Mid-Prairie defense putting up 116 tackles, seventh most in school history during the year. The 2015 edition of the Golden Hawks put up 3,539 yards, the fourth highest total in the history of the program. Their 2,376 rushing yards were seventh most.

Tuesday will feature the 2016-17 academic year for athletics at Mid-Prairie in our decade in review.