The moment itself was special.

Mid-Prairie’s girls cross country varsity team, a squad with just one senior and a boatload of freshmen and sophomores, won a state title on the second day of November in Fort Dodge.

A half hour later, Mid-Prairie senior Emmett Swartzentruber led a charge by the Golden Hawks boys team to a second-place finish.

That’s one-two at a state championship meet loaded with runners who like to run long and like to run fast.

The girls celebrated with their traditional “jump” following the postrace awards ceremony, a fun kind of a photo opp for parents and spectators.

Then, the boys followed with their own “jump.”

“This is pretty great,” said Dessa Poll, the one senior on Mid-Prairie’s girls varsity team.

“It’s incredible,” Swartzentruber said.

Special, for sure.

But then, this isn’t the first time. And that’s what made this year’s state championship run so unique.

The Golden Hawks have secured first- AND second-place finishes twice since 2016. The girls have won six state titles. The boys have won it once and finished second twice. Four Golden Hawk runners, including Swartzentruber, have won individual state championships. The other three are all daughters of head coach Mark Hostetler, and two of them, Danielle and Marie, won three individual state championships.

How does this happen?

It's the work. It’s really that simple.

Mention running to somebody who isn’t from Mid-Prairie in July, and you get a funny look. I mean, preseason practices don’t start until August; actual meets, after that.

But at Mid-Prairie? They’re on the road in Wellman all year long. The Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Valentines Day. They run in the cold and they run in the heat.

“We’ve trained through blizzards. Wildfire haze. Absolutely everything,” Swartzentruber said with a laugh.

“They know what they need to do,” head coach Mark Hostetler said. “There are so many kids, they would love to be in this situation. But they don’t want to do the work.”

And that’s the thing.

You want to talk about that traditional Iowa work ethic? It’s right here in the streets of Wellman. Pretty much every day. Even when the coach isn’t around to start a late summer practice at 6:30 in the morning.

“You can go to any school,” Hostetler said. “Would you love to be up there (on the award platform) and win?”

“Oh, sure, yeah, that’d be great,” is the response.

“Well,” Hostetler says, “do you want to come out every day for 365 days a year and run when it’s hot? And it’s cold?”

“There’s a lot of them that don’t,” he said. “I wish they would.”

This is the legend of a cross country and track program traditioned in titles and traditioned in work. The Golden Hawks don’t have a home course. Instead, they head out to Pella and the Kickers Soccer Park in Iowa City and Williamsburg Recreation fields and Wartburg College in Waverly, and they just win.

But it does start in Wellman, specifically at the Wellman Golf Course, which is located just a bit northwest of the high school. If you’re out there for an early morning golf round, you’ll probably see them.

And Hostetler is appreciative.

“Not too many people have that nice of a place that they’ll let us train on,” he said. “The Wellman Golf Course has been great just to let us run there. The golfers there, they’re easy to get along with. We try to stay out of their way as much as we can. I know that there’s times we get in their way.”

And it’s a big deal.

You wouldn’t know it in Fort Dodge, which, ironically, uses a golf course at Kennedy Park to finish up the state cross country season every November. But it’s a big deal.

“You think, well, that’s not a big deal,” Hostetler said. “It is. It’s a golf course. There’s a lot of people in the community that are behind this. It just feels good to have that many people in the community with that support.”

And then, there’s the faith. It’s everywhere and it’s strong and it’s inspirational.

“We have a pretty good work ethic and we all push each other pretty hard,” Poll said. “But it’s also, we trust God pretty good and He gives us our strength to work pretty hard.”

“I just really appreciate the Lord and all my teammates’ support,” said Rebekah Wallington, a junior who fell numerous times during a 2A district meet and still managed to finish and qualify for the state meet. “We all support each other.”

Said Rachel Hostetler, a freshman who finished 14th in her first state meet: “It was mentally and physically really hard, but I just want to give all to Lord the God. When I finished the line, I was just like, I would not have been able to do that if God didn’t give me this strength.”

The faith, and the work ethic, is powerful.

After all the celebrating, Mark Hostetler joked, well maybe the Hawks can go first and first one year.

Indeed, it just might happen. No question.

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul