District championship sends Golden Hawks running toward state meet

IOWA CITY

The Kickers Soccer Complex on the south side of Iowa City is turning almost into a home course for Mid-Prairie’s cross country team.

The Golden Hawks won the River Valley Conference girls championship here two weeks ago.

They’ve often won the Clear Creek Amana Invitational here.

A few years ago, they posted a perfect score here.

Max Swartzentruber won a conference title here last year.

And last Thursday (Oct. 22), four Mid-Prairie runners finished among the top 11 in a 2A state qualifier as the Golden Hawks punched their team ticket for this week’s girls state championship meet in Fort Dodge with a first-place finish.

Kendal Landstrum, a Mid-Prairie senior, finished second, leading the Golden Hawk runners with a time of 19:35.8. Brooklyn Stutzman, a Top 10 finisher the last two years at the state meet, finished fourth in 19:44.6.

“It’s awesome. I love this course, honestly,” Stutzman said. “I feel like our team knows it so well. We were able to feel strong and smooth today. That was what we were going for. We wanted to save something for state next week, obviously, because that’s the main goal.”

The Golden Hawks will chase after their seventh 2A state title in 10 years Friday afternoon at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge. They have finished no worse than seventh place in any of those 10 years.

All of that was in their minds Thursday at the Kickers Complex.

“They wanted to know where we were as a team,” head coach Jeremy Meyers said, “how much they needed to push so that we could make sure we solidified our spot and put ourselves in the best position to go down to Fort Dodge and run the best race we can.”

The Golden Hawks scored 60 points and defeated River Valley rival Tipton by 24.

At Fort Dodge, Mid-Prairie’s competition will include West Marshall, which scored 36 points in a state qualifier at Eagle Grove, and defending state champion Treynor, which scored 47 points with three finishers among the top five in its state qualifier win on its home course.

Joining the girls team in Fort Dodge will be Swartzentruber, a senior who locked down an individual spot in the boys state race with a seventh-place finish in the qualifier. It’ll be his fourth trip to the state championship meet.

Landstrum, who missed last year’s state meet due to a stress fracture, nearly won the state qualifier except for the lead Gator vehicle leaving diesel gas fumes blasting in her face after she took over the race lead halfway through.

“When I was in the front,” Landstrum said, “I was inhaling the exhaust from the cart. My head hurt really bad.”

Tipton’s Avery Mente passed her late in the race and beat Landstrum by 3.1 seconds as the last several hundred yards turned into more of a sprint than a cross country run.

“She definitely had a really good kick,” Landstrum said. “I wanted to try to go with her, but I really wasn’t feeling the best.”

But an individual win wasn’t necessary as Landstrum, Stutzman, Tessa Brokaw and Rachel Hostetler captured four of the top 11 places. Ruby Miller, a senior in her first season running cross country, finished 34th overall, and sisters Kyrie and Nikkari Poll, finished 50th and 52nd, respectively.

“Honestly, no matter what place I am, I’m just grateful to be here with the team,” Landstrum said. “The goal is for the team to do well. If I do well in the process, that’s great. The team is definitely more important.”

“That was the approach,” Meyers said. “We wanted to run fast, we wanted to qualify. Being able to win is an extra little bit there that we’re happy about. But the biggest thing was get in, get qualified.”

Unlike last year, when Landstrum was out and several other varsity starters were either fighting off injuries or sickness, the Golden Hawks will arrive in Fort Dodge healthy and with a solid seven runners (the top five finishers count in compiling scores).

“That’s been kind of the thing all year,” said Meyers, who is in his first year as varsity head coach after coaching the middle-school team for years. “We want to work hard, we want to get better, but health has always been kind of the thing.”

Swartzentruber finished seventh in the boys race with a time of 17:44.8 to qualify for his fourth state championship race. When he made his debut in 2023, his older brother Emmett won the individual title. A year later, he was on a Mid-Prairie team that placed second. Last year, he finished a career-best 59th.

“I don’t take state for granted,” Swartzentruber said. “It’s a special experience.”

2A STATE QUALIFIER

(At Kickers Complex, Iowa City, Oct. 23)

GIRLS TOP 3 TEAMS: State qualified, 1, Mid-Prairie, 60; 2, Tipton, 84; 3, Jesup, 109.

GIRLS TOP 15: 1, Avery Mente, Tipton, 19:32.7; 2, Kendal Landstrum, Mid-Prairie, 19:35.8; 3, Mady Montgomery, Albia, 19:38.3; 4, Brooklyn Stutzman, Mid-Prairie, 19:44.6; 5, Aubree Bunnell, Central Lee, 20:25.4; 6, Hannah Ritter, Notre Dame/West Burlington, 20:36.7; 7, Avery Dietz, Mediapolis, 20:37.4; 8, Dylan Vogel, Jesup, 20:38.1; 9, Tessa Brokaw, Mid-Prairie, 20:41.0; 10, Kaitlyn Kipp, Notre Dame/West Burlington, 20:47.8; 11, Rachel Hostetler, Mid-Prairie, 20:49.8; 12, Kate Krutsinger, Chariton, 20:53.2; 13, Fiona McGill, Louisa-Muscatine, 20:57.3; 14, Addie Hall, Chariton, 21:09.4; 15, Hallie Fitzgerald, Tipton, 21:20.4.

MID-PRAIRIE: 34, Ruby Miller, 22:46.1; 50, Kyrie Poll, 23:53.3; 52, Nikkari Poll, 23:55.4.

BOYS TOP 3 TEAMS: State qualified, 1, Chariton, 51; 2, Notre Dame/West Burlington, 84; 3, IC Regina Catholic, 107.

BOYS TOP 15: 1, Lucas Anderson, Chariton, 16:21.0; 2, Cy Stuart, Chariton, 16:27.7; 3, Will Schmidgall, Mediapolis, 17:04.1; 4, Drake Newton, Central Lee, 17:13.5; 5, Cody Dixson, Chariton, 17:18.3; 6, Oscar Cline, Louisa-Muscatine, 17:41.8; 7, Max Swartzentruber, Mid-Prairie, 17:44.8; 8, Connor Hoffman, Regina Catholic, 17:49.9; 9, Cavin Denney, Notre Dame/West Burlington, 17:51.8; 10, Matthew Oleson, Notre Dame/West Burlington, 17:53.5; 11, Gage Moss, Davis County, 17:54.3; 12, Connor Garland, Davis County, 17:55.0; 13, Noble Fields, Wilton, 17:55.4; 14, Landon Roberts, Jesup, 18:00.0; 15, Huck Zahasky, Regina Catholic, 18:04.8.

MID-PRAIRIE: 29, Jacob Lothamer, 18:40.9; 59, Thomas Lueck, 20:06.6; 63, Cayce Damschen, 20:16.2; 69, Landon Hough, 20:26.6; 71, Reece Waters, 20:38.4.