It was a landmark night at the Iowa City Kickers Complex for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls cross country programs Monday. For only the second time in school history, the Golden Hawk girls won a meet title with perfect score of 15, watching their five scoring runners finish the race in first, second, third, fourth and fifth place overall. Sophomore Danielle Hostetler was the individual meet champion with a time of 19:33. Sydney Yoder was runner-up, Jaden Yoder third, Phoebe Shetler fourth and Mitzi Evans fifth. For good measure, Golden Hawk number six runner Abby Fleming was sixth, marking the second time in program history that the Golden Hawks have had their top six finish one through six. The other was a meet at Lagos Acres in Keota in 2015. Golden Hawk seventh runner Annika Poll was 13th in the field. After the race, Mid-Prairie fourth and fifth place finishers Shetler and Evans talked with KCII Sports about their night and being part of the perfect score. “The goal for the run tonight was to start picking it up after the first mile, and then kick hard over the last half mile. This feels really good, we haven’t gotten that yet this season, it’s nice to see what my teammates can do.”

“I was trying to count runners, I was like ‘okay, I know Danielle then Sydney, then Jaden, Phoebe and me.’ I can look at my teammates and see the joy on their faces and it makes me proud of my teammates.”

The boys side of the meet also saw history for the Golden Hawks as senior number one runner Thaddeus Shetler won his first individual championship, beating the field in a time of 17:35. Mid-Prairie head coach Mark Hostetler spoke after the meet about Shetler’s run. “He knew that he could do it. As hard as he has worked, he deserves to be where he’s at and that’s what put him there.”

The Golden Hawk boys finished second as a team with 45 points, falling to the Clear Creek Amana Clippers on their home course who finished with 33. Other Mid-Prairie runners included Chandler Hershberger sixth, Emmett Swartzentruber ninth, Preston Yutzy 13th, Sam Yoder 16th, Nathan Wallington 22nd, and Robert Nagy 25th.

WACO and Winfield-Mt. Union also competed in Iowa City Monday. The WMU boys had the highest area team finish in sixth with 172 points. They were led by Gabe Hemsworth in 19th at 19:55. Other Wolves runners included Lane Scorpil 38th, Kohlby Newsom 47th, Jeff Maish 58th, Ty Scorpil 64th, Jacob Haines 68th, and Sheaden Adams 71st. The WACO boys were ninth with a score of 252 points. The Warriors were led by Isaac Rich in 51st with a time of 22:05. Other Warrior finishers included Jonah Egli 70th, Keiran Luitjens 75th, Mattias Luitjens 78th, and Deacon Bird 114th. Neither the Wolves or Warriors posted team scores in the girls event. WACO was led by Justine Lynn in 57th along with McKenzie Vradenburg 62nd, and Avery Waterhouse 71st. WMU’s lone girls runner was Maggie Hutton in 69th place.