The highly anticipated 2023 season started Monday for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls cross country teams. The Hawks traveled to the Ashton Cross Country Course on the campus of the University of Iowa for the Iowa City West Invitational, which was originally scheduled for last week. The Golden Hawks performed well against a stacked field of 4A teams, highlighted by stellar individual finishes.

In the girls race, the Hawks were third of five teams with a score of 74. Dubuque Hempstead won the title with 26. Senior Danielle Hostetler began her final season in black and gold with an individual title, finishing in 19:40, more than 16 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. She spoke after the meet about the night for her and her teammates. “We’ve talked about everyone just pushing themselves as hard as they can. When you do that, you push your teammates as well and you make an altogether stronger team. The first meet is just about learning how to race again. Learning how to push yourself. It’s important to pace well and don’t get too excited with it and go out too fast. Take it a little easy the first mile and then finish hard. I definitely tried to push the middle mile because that’s where everyone tends to slow down. It felt pretty good. It’s been a while since I’ve raced and had that feeling of pushing myself to the max. I’m also  just so proud of my team!”

Other runners for Mid-Prairie included Annika Poll 16th, Brooklyn Stutzman 18th, Greta Sieren 19th, Abby Fleming 20th, Phoebe Shetler 23rd, Rebekah Wallington 31st, Kali Miller 33rd and Dessa Poll 34th.

The Golden Hawk boys were fifth of five teams with 98 points. Dubuque Hempstead was also the team winner with 39 points. Top finish for the Hawks was Emmett Swartzentruber in third with a time of 17:12. He talked after the race about the run for him and his teammates. “First meet, you want to have a feel for how it’s going to go the rest of the season. Try to have those consistent mile times. Especially in that second mile, not going out too hard in the first mile. The second mile is key. I felt really good today, both before and after the race. The team spirit was high and we were pretty confident as well. I know I executed my plan well and ran some pretty good mile times. Watching my teammates coming in too was uplifting!”

Other Golden Hawks included Jayse Yoder 15th, Preston Yutzy 18th, Max Swartzentruber 32nd, Daniel Rodgers 39th, Jacob Donaldson 41st, Thomas Flynn 43rd and Jesse Stultz 45th.

The Hawks are off until Saturday when they run at Central College in Pella.