As local track and field athletes competed in one of Iowa high school athletics’ great traditions over the weekend, one came away with the ultimate prize. Mid-Prairie’s Jayden Stafford won the high school 400-meter wheelchair race at the 2024 Drake Relays Friday.

The Golden Hawk junior crossed the finish line in one minute 4.31 seconds, about a second-and-a-half faster than the runner-up Eli Johnson from Bedford. Washington Demon sophomore Josh Anderson was fourth in the wheelchair 400 at just over seven seconds back of Stafford.

Mid-Prairie senior Danielle Hostetler was 13th in the high school girls’ 1,500-meter run with a time of four minutes 46-and-a-half seconds, about 20 seconds behind the winning pace.

Fellow Golden Hawk senior Emma Lueck was tied for 13th in the long jump after leaping over 16 feet. Winfield-Mount Union senior Cam Buffington hit 20 feet 10-and-a-half inches to finish 14th in the boys’ long jump.

Senior Micah Rees finished 17th in the boys’ 3,200 meters after running a time of just under nine-and-a-half minutes for Washington. The Demon boys ran a time of 44.53 seconds in the 4-by-100-meter relay that was not quite good enough to qualify for the finals.

The Columbus Wildcats’ time of 44.4 seconds didn’t make the cut either, while the Washington and Mid-Prairie girls also missed out on the finals with times of 50.66 and 50-and-a-half seconds, respectively.