We continue our review of the last decade for Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk athletics with a look at the 2016-17 school year.

The Mid-Prairie boys and girls cross country teams had a huge fall and made history. The Golden Hawk boys brought home their first ever River Valley Conference team championship led by Peyton Miller as RVC runner up. The Hawks followed that performance by winning the state qualifier meet for the second straight year, Miller again led the way taking fourth in Pella. Once at state, the Mid-Prairie boys won the program’s first ever state championship. Their team score of 98 beat Unity Christian by 17. Peyton Miller had the top finish in 11th at 17:02. Other Mid-Prairie runners included Zach Pettit 12th, Floyd Evans 14th, Marshal Teets 26th, Quinn Schmidt 35th, Brent Foster 44th and Andrew Schwartz 85th. The Mid-Prairie boys finished the year with a 112-6 record. The state title was the fourth in school history in any sport, joining 2002 girls basketball, 2004 baseball and 2006 boys track.

The Golden Hawk girls also had a big year, finishing as River Valley runner’s up. Anna Hostetler was the individual RVC Champion with a time of 17:42 and sister Marie was runner-up. The Golden Hawk girls were state qualifying meet champs for the second straight year with a score of 61, beating Collins-Maxwell-Baxter by a single point. In Pella, Mid-Prairie was led by the Hostetlers again, with Anna winning the individual title in 17:57 and Marie second at 17:58. In Fort Dodge at state, the Golden Hawks finished third with a score of 133 points. Anna Hostetler brought home the programs first individual state championship, racing by the field with a time of 17:57. Sister Marie Hostetler was runner-up in 18:15. Other Golden Hawk finishers included Greta Schmidt 38th, Abby Tornow 40th, Kessa Jones 52nd, Kyleigh Graham 54th and Abbigail Evans 66th. The Golden Hawk girls ended the season with an 88-12 overall record.

It was a big spring on the oval for Mid-Prairie boys and girls athletes. The Golden Hawk track teams combined to send 18 events to Drake Stadium and the blue oval. The Mid-Prairie girls had six of those events and finished as state team runners-up in 2A with 58 points. Anna Hostetler won three event championships during her time in Des Moines, bringing home titles in the 800, 1500 and 3000. Her time in the 1500 was a new state record. She was joined in those three events by her sister Marie who finished as runner-up in the 1500 and 3000 and in fifth place in the 800. Other Golden Hawk girls events included runner-up for the Mid-Prairie 4×800 team of Anna and Marie Hostetler, Abby Tornow and Kate Cavanagh, 20th for the distance medley team of Kessa Jones, Greta Schmidt, Abbagail Evans and Tornow and 24th for the 4×400 team of Tornow, Evans, Kitty Conway and Schmidt.

The Mid-Prairie boys qualified a dozen events for the state meet. The Hawks were led by a third place finish from the 4×800 team of Andrew Schwartz, Marshal Teets, Cary Schaefer and Peyton Miller. Other events for the Hawks included fifth for Levi Duwa in the shot put, fifth for Miller in the 400 hurdles, eighth for the distance medley team of Quinn Schmidt, Terrhyn Jacoby, Schaefer and Schwartz, eighth for Duwa in the discus, eighth for Zach Pettit in the 3200, Floyd Evans was 16th in the same event. Jacoby was 12th in the 100, the 4×400 team of Schaefer, Miller, Teets and Schmidt took 12th, the sprint medley team of Schaefer, Jacoby, Schmidt and Miller were also 12th. Kyle Miller was 14th in the high jump, Schwartz 16th in the 800, Teets was 19th in the same event and Zach Pettit was 17th in the 1600.

Visouth Peterschmidt continued the success for the Mid-Prairie wrestling team in sending grapplers to Des Moines. The senior got to state as a district champion and once there the 182lber finished in fourth place. He went 3-2 in his time at Wells Fargo arena, including advancing to the semifinals. He joined his brothers Nearoth and Phirom who were also state tournament qualifiers. Peterschmidt ended his time at state on the podium and his season with a 47-7 overall record.

The Mid-Prairie girls basketball team fell one win shy of a return trip to the state tournament. The Hawks finished with a 17-7 overall record, and were 13-5 in the River Valley, good for third place. Mid-Prairie was knocked out of the playoffs in the regional final by Center Point-Urbana, their nemesis from Des Moines a season before. Addie Rath led Mid-Prairie with 329 total points on the year, 10th most in the RVC. Rath also dished out 105 assists, eighth most in the state. Ireland Hostetler had 205 rebounds, ninth in class 3A.

The Mid-Prairie football team finished over .500 in 2016 with a 5-4 record, but missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. Standouts during the year included Mid-Prairie running back Ricky Vargas who posted 126 points, fifth most in school history for a single year. His 21 touchdowns were also fifth most. His biggest game of the year was a five score outburst in a 62-22 win at Northeast Goose Lake. He also had an 82 yard run against Mt. Vernon, the ninth longest run in Mid-Prairie history. His 1,304 yards on the ground were seventh most in school history for a single season. The 2016 team scored 299 points, eighth most in a year in Mid-Prairie history. Their 42 touchdowns are 10th all-time. Their total of 2,340 yards on the ground is eighth most.

Wednesday will feature the 2017-18 academic year for athletics at Mid-Prairie in our decade in review.