Golden Hawks up to the challenge at Wartburg

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 10/6/21

A challenging schedule continued for Mid-Prairie cross country teams on Saturday at the Dan Huston - Steve Johnson Invitational held at Wartburg. 

Despite missing their usual second runner, …

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Golden Hawks up to the challenge at Wartburg

Posted

A challenging schedule continued for Mid-Prairie cross country teams on Saturday at the Dan Huston - Steve Johnson Invitational held at Wartburg. 

Despite missing their usual second runner, Sydney Yoder, the Golden Hawk girls edged 2A No. 2 Denver 209-226 for fifth place in the field of mostly 3A and 4A teams. 

Mid-Prairie sophomore Danielle Hostetler pulled away from Pleasant Valley freshman Grace Boleyn over the final 1,000 meters to finish first by nearly five seconds. 

The top-ranked runner in 4A, Boleyn is the only Iowan to ever finish ahead of Hostetler in a high school meet. She finished second at Central’s Heartland Classic on September 18 with a time of 18:14 to Hostetler’s fourth place 18:32. On Saturday, Hostetler went sub-18 for the second time this season to win the meet with a career-best 17:55. 

“It was great to see Danielle’s mental toughness as she faced that rematch,” Mid-Prairie assistant coach Aaron Fleming said. “Some runners might be intimidated after being beaten by a girl from a big 4A school, but I don’t know if it’s possible to intimidate Danielle. She just loves to run fast and compete, and she ran really smart early in the race and set herself up to pull away over the last mile.”

The first-place finish gave Hostetler head-to-head wins over all of the other top-ranked individuals in the state this year. She edged 1A No. 1 Noelle Steines at Monticello and finished ahead of 3A No. 1 Paityn Noe at the Heartland Classic. 

Thaddeus Shetler led the Mid-Prairie boys with a new personal record of 16:39, finishing 44th out of 225. 

Phoebe Shetler also had a personal record on Saturday. With Yoder out, she took over 30 seconds off of her best time to finish second among the Golden Hawks and 33rd overall with a time of 19:43. She was in 71st place after 2,000 meters, passing 32 runners over the next 2K, and six more over the final 1K stretch. 

“The whole team raced with a lot of intelligence too,” Fleming said. “Unofficial standings show that Mid-Prairie was in 18th place one kilometer into the race, in 11th place at the 2k mark, and then in fifth place by the end. These girls are just so cool and collected under pressure.” 

Even with over 200 runners in the girls varsity race, the 2A top-ranked Golden Hawks were looking to move up whenever they caught a glimpse of the red and gold colors of No. 2 Denver. 

“Jaden Yoder nipped a Denver runner at the line,” Fleming said, “and Mitzi Evans was less than three seconds behind Denver’s fourth runner. Abby Fleming stepped up to score as our fifth runner, and her 33 second season best time couldn’t have come at a better moment. Anika Poll also had a big PR and finished ahead of Denver’s sixth runner by about eight seconds, which could be decisive in a tie at state.”

The Mid-Prairie boys finished 22nd out of 25 teams on Saturday. Williamsburg, who is ranked third in 2A, finished 20th with a score of 573 to No. 4 Mid-Prairie’s 597. 

“The team score against a whole raft of 4A powers doesn’t do justice to the efforts the boys gave,” Fleming said. “The big team score we were looking at was the matchup with Williamsburg, who we will probably see at state qualifying. We ran fairly close to them and it will be important for us to be able to compete well with them to have a good chance of making it through to the state meet.”

Shetler moved up from 72nd with 3K left to 44th with 1K to go, and held that place across the finish line. 

“If Thaddeus ever gets rattled or nervous, you can’t see it from the outside,” Fleming said. “He just ran a smart, smooth race, moving up the whole way and pushing hard. 

“His calm determination is rubbing off on the younger guys as well. Emmet Swartzendruber broke the 18-minute barrier, a great accomplishment for any freshman, and fellow freshman Preston Yutzy was not far off of that mark. Preston was a middle-of-the-pack runner as a middle schooler, but he runs without fear or anxiety and just keeps moving up. Seniors Sam Yoder and Robert Nagy also had personal records, and juniors Nathan Wallington and Chandler Hershberger had some of their best races of the season.” 

The Golden Hawks were allowed 10 runners in the varsity race on Saturday instead of the typical seven. All seven boys finished under 21 minutes as did the junior varsity leaders Blake Creed and Kaden Meader.

The Golden Hawks have a 10-day break before the River Valley Conference meet in Iowa City on October 12. 

 

Girls Varsity Results

1 Danielle Hostetler 17:50

33. Phoebe Shetler 19:43

45. Jaden Yoder 20:03

61. Mitzi Evans 20:24

73. Abby Fleming 20:38

92. Annika Poll 21:02

143. Amara Jones 22:15

146. Dessa Poll 22:18

152. Greta Sieren 22:29

170. Ivy Reschly 22:52

Junior Varsity

45. Anna Flynn 23:23

59. Charlotte Sieren 23:48

82. Tabitha Evans 24:24

131. Grace Conway 25:41

151. Paityn Jennings 26:16

178. Lilou Beachy 26:59

194. Aliza Parks 27:48

212. Annette Wittholf 28:36

214. Anna Nafziger 28:41

Boys Varsity Results

44. Thaddeus Shetler 16:39

123. Emmett Swartzentruber 17:46

158. Preston Yutzy 18:14

180. Chandler Hershberger 18:34

187. Nathan Wallington 18:44

188. Robert Nagy 18:46

204. Sam Yoder 19:11

218. Jayse yoder 19:59

220. Mose Yoder 20:25

222. Jordan Stock 20:30

Junior Varsity

174. Blake Creed 20:21

205. Kaden Meader 20:41

260. Thomas Flynn 21:20

275. Daniel Rodgers 21:30

290. Andrew Stultz 21:51

300. Jacob Donaldson 22:08

357. Sawyer Hough 23:06