The top story in Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk athletics last year happened on the big stage this spring for the Golden Hawk boys and girls track and field teams.
Prior to their work at the state meet, the Golden Hawks posted a dominant regular season. The Mid-Prairie girls won six team championships out of eight meets they competed in. The Hawks took the title at Mount Pleasant, Washington, Lone Tree, their home meet, at Tipton, twice, and then won their third consecutive River Valley Conference team championship at Tipton later in the season. During the regular year, the Golden Hawks piled up 48 event championships at those meets. Eight of those event titles were RVC gold winners including Danielle Hostetler in the 800 and 1500, Tabitha Evans in the 200, Ella Groenewold in high jump, the sprint medley of Madeline Schrader, Naveah Decker, Jovi and Tabitha Evans, the 4×100 with Schrader, Amara Jones, Evans and Evans, that same group in the 4×200 and the distance medley with Schrader, Jones, Greta Sieren and Hostetler.
The regular season for the Mid-Prairie boys included a team win at their home Golden Hawk Relays. Mid-Prairie won 22 event championships at meets during the year. The Hawks finished sixth at the RVC Championships.
Special meets were truly special this year for the Hawks. Between the Golden Hawk boys and girls they qualified six events for the Drake Relays. Their time early in the year in Des Moines was highlighted by Jayden Stafford who won the second Drake title in school history when he beat the field in the wheel chair 400 and carried the flag around the blue oval. Also competing at Drake for the Golden Hawk boys was Cain Brown in the high jump and long jump. For the Mid-Prairie girls, they sent three events of their own with the top finish third for Danielle Hostetler in the 1500. the Golden Hawk 4×100 and 4×200 team of Schrader, Jones, Evans and Evans also ran at Drake.
In the postseason, the Golden Hawk girls captured their third consecutive state qualifier meet championship when they beat the field at Tipton. Mid-Prairie had 15 auto qualifier events on the night including championships for Hostetler in the 800, 1500 and 3000, Tabitha Evans in the 200, Sieren in the 400, Ella Groenewold in high jump, the 4×100 and 4×200 teams of Schrader, Jones, Evans and Evans, and runners-ups from Abby Fleming in the 1500 and 3000, Emma Lueck in long jump, the 4×800 team of Annika Poll, Rebekah Wallington, Kali Miller and Sieren and the shuttle hurdle team with Jones, Olivia Schlabach, Behla Schmidt and Sophie Miller. Naveah Decker in the 100 and Sieren in the 800 also advanced as performance qualifiers, to make the full total 17.
For the Mid-Prairie boys, they qualified five events automatically for state and five more on performance. Auto-qualifiers included Emmett Swartzentruber champ in the two-mile and Stafford in the wheel chair 100, 200, 400 and 800. The five performance qualifiers were Jayse Yoder in the 800 and mile, Blake Creed in the mile and Brown and Landon Sullivan in long jump.
Mid-Prairie performed well on the big stage in Des Moines. The Blue oval saw a total of five Golden Hawk event championships. The Mid-Prairie girls saw their 2A team title streak end at four with a runner-up performance of 49 points. Hostetler was the 3000 winner and the team of Schrader, Decker, Evans and Evans won gold in the 4×200. The Golden Hawk girls had two events finish runner-up with the 4×200 crew taking second in the 4×1 and the distance med of Schrader, Jones, Evans and Hostetler going second. Other scoring events included the sprint med with Schrader, Decker, Evans and Evans and Hostetler in the 800 and 1500. Jayden Stafford put on a show for the Golden Hawk boys, winning triple gold during his time at Drake Stadium. He won the wheel chair 100, 200 and 400 titles. Jayse Yoder also scored in the 800 for Mid-Prairie.
That concludes our countdown of the top 10 sports stories at Mid-Prairie from the 2022-23 school year. You can find all 10 stories available, free, on our website at KCIIradio.com.