Battling injuries and one of the toughest conference meet fields in the state, the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk cross country teams rose to the occasion Tuesday at the River Valley Conference Championship meet with stellar performances. The No. 2 in Class 2A Golden Hawk girls saw their run of four consecutive titles come to an end with a runner-up team finish of 69 points, dethroned by No. 1 in Class 2A Monticello with 57 points. The Hawks put up an impressive performance, despite being without their No. 3 runner Phoebe Shetler. Mid-Prairie was powered by a 1-2 individual finish from RVC Champion, junior, Danielle Hostetler, who claimed her third individual conference title in 19:28. She was followed closely by teammate, and RVC individual runner-up, junior Abby Fleming. They spoke with KCII Sports after the race about the night. “We wanted to risk it a little more. Try taking it out a little harder in the first mile and see if we could keep that pace. There were people telling me how far Abby was behind me and I could see Danielle ahead of me on the course. We were so proud of our teammates, especially Tabitha (Evans) and Amara (Jones), they moved up a ton and ran phenomenal races.”

Other finishers for the Golden Hawk girls included Greta Sieren 17th, Dessa Poll 26th, Tabitha Evans 29th, Amara Jones 32nd, Annika Poll 35th, Ivy Reschly 37th, Hannah Rodgers 72nd, Kali Miller 74th, Paityn Jennings 92nd, Alaina Safly 93rd, and Josie Greiner 95th.

The Golden Hawk boys were sixth as a team with 138 points, defending state champion Tipton won the team title with 56 points. The Hawks were running without sophomores Emmett Swartzentruber and Jayse Yoder who had typically held the top two spots in their lineup during the season. Golden Hawk sophomore Preston Yutzy had the top finish, taking eighth in 18:03, to earn Elite All-Conference honors. Other Mid-Prairie finishers included Nathan Wallington 18th, Blake Creed 29th, Jesse Stultz 41st, Daniel Rodgers 42nd, Jordan Stock 48th, Thomas Flynn 49th, Luke Brokaw 53rd, Andrew Stultz 57th, Jacob Donaldson 62nd, Kaden Meader 78th, Mose Yoder 94th, Sawyer Hough 99th, Adrian Sanchez 134th, Alex Castillo 149th, Josh Keaough 154th, and Evan Reschly 163rd. The Golden Hawks will next be on the course for their state qualifier meet at Pella Christian October 20th. You can hear interviews with Danielle Hostetler, Abby Fleming, Preston Yutzy and head coach Mark Hostetler on Wednesday and Thursdays edition of the KCII PM Sports Page this week.