Golden Hawks set new personal records at Monticello

By Kohlton Kober
Posted 9/15/22

The Mid-Prairie cross country teams took to the course on Saturday at the Monticello Invitational. The girls placed second with 78 points, finishing behind the meet host Monticello. The Golden Hawk …

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Golden Hawks set new personal records at Monticello

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The Mid-Prairie cross country teams took to the course on Saturday at the Monticello Invitational. The girls placed second with 78 points, finishing behind the meet host Monticello. The Golden Hawk boys finished fourth, missing the podium by one spot. 

“Our boys really rose to the occasion, with 15 out of 18 on the team running a career-best time,” Mid-Prairie assistant coach Aaron Fleming said. “Win or lose, as a coach what you want to see most is that the athletes see a connection between their hard work and a personal improvement, and so we just couldn’t be happier with their effort and the way they responded to the competition.”

Emmett Swartzentruber set the team’s pace, recording a sixth-place finish with a total time of 16:53.  Jayse Yoder, Preston Yutzy and Nathan Wallington all finished two places apart from each other, finishing 21st, 23rd and 25th. Jordan Stock finished 48th and Daniel Rodgers was 53rd.

“Jayse Yoder has now PR’d two meets in a row and seems to be steadily figuring out how to push himself more, and we’re excited because he’s got a lot of potential yet,” Fleming said. “He’s put in the work in the offseason and now the success is starting to come for him. Nathan Wallington is also getting back into the form we saw a couple years ago when he was a breakout underclassman, so it’s good to see him developing confidence with every race and coming on strong. 

“There’s a lot of depth on the team too. Daniel Rogers had cracked the 19-minute barrier for the first time and was our seventh runner, while freshman Jesse Stultz took 2nd in the JV race and clocked a time just 2 seconds behind Daniel. And sophomore Thomas Flynn was just a few seconds back at 19:09. 

“Other guys, like freshmen Owen Zirkelbach and Alex Castillo, are adjusting to the 5k distance and knocked over two minutes off of their PR’s. We’ve still got some work to do in getting the times of our second mile down: almost everyone on the team showed they had a little too much left at the end, but overall the progress has been really good.”

For the Mid-Prairie girls, junior Danielle Hostetler set the trail ablaze, recording a total time of 18:23, outpacing her next closest competitor by 30 seconds. Abby Fleming recorded a time of 20:18, good enough for a ninth place finish overall. A time of 20:32 from Phoebe Shetler saw her finish just outside the top ten at 12th overall. Dessa Poll and Greta Sieren finished 27th and 29th respectively. The final two Golden Hawks, Annika Poll and Ivy Reschly rounded out the lineup with top 40 finishes.

“The girls also had a batch of personal records, with over half the team notching PR’s, but by far the biggest mover of the day was Dessa Poll,” Fleming said. “Two weeks ago she was on the bubble for the varsity squad, but she set a goal of getting under 23 minutes and running in the 22’s for the first time. She was so determined, she jumped all the way over the 22’s to run 21:28, just an astonishing improvement, and the deciding factor in a two-point win over Tipton. 

“Greta Sieren and Ivy Reschly were the other varsity girls who posted PR’s, and the rest of the team had season best times and are closing in on their PR’s too. Like the boys, the girls’ pace sagged in the middle of the race before picking up in the last mile, so they’re well aware of the work we need to do there. The girls are also in the position of underdog for the first time in a couple of years, so we’ll be talking about how to continue to stay mentally tough in those circumstances.”

 The second-place finish by the team was the first time the team hasn’t emerged victorious over a 2A competitor since before the pandemic. 

“It was just a fantastic meet,” Fleming said. “Monticello has a great course and runs a great meet, and the competition with Monticello and Tipton and Mid-Prairie shows why the River Valley Conference is one of the best in the state.”

 

RESULTS (BOYS)

6. Emmett Swartzentruber 16:53

21. Jayse Yoder 17:41 

23. Preston Yutzy 17:43

25. Nathan Wallington 17:51

41. Blake Creed 18:25

50. Jordan Stock 18:42

54. Daniel Rodgers 18:55

(JV) 2. Jesse Stultz 18:57

4. Thomas Flynn 19:09

12. Luke Brokaw 19:36

16. Jacob Donaldson 19:47

20. Andrew Stultz 20:01

33. Sawyer Hough 21:24

49. Adrian Sanchez 22:11

(GIRLS)

1. Danielle Hostetler 18:23

9. Abby Fleming 20:18

12. Phoebe Shetler 20:32

28. Dessa Poll 21:28

30. Greta Sieren 21:36

32. Annika Poll 21:41

41. Ivy Reschly 22:35

(JV) 2. Tabitha Evans 22:14

5. Amara Jones 22:49

25. Hannah Rodgers 26:07

31. Kali Miller 26:48

43 Paityn Jennings 27:51

50. Alaina Safly 29:05