The name of the meet was the IMS Invitational, however it was in every sense a “home” meet for the Mid-Prairie cross country team. After all, the meet was at the Wellman Golf Course, a short walk from the Mid-Prairie campus and a few miles from IMS.

All of the Hawks competed in the varsity races for the first time this season, leading to several new personal bests for Mid-Prairie last Monday.

“I figured the tougher competition at the varsity level might push my runners to new personal records, and in the boys race the strategy worked,” Mid-Prairie coach Gary Curtis reported.

Freshman Tad TeBockhorst lead the way for the Golden Hawks boys as he finished the 5K in a new personal best time of 20:18 to place 48th. Senior Adam Casper also set a personal record as he ran on TeBockhorst’s heels until the final quarter-mile, coming home in 57th with a time of 20:29. Justin Montgomery, a junior, ran his best race of the year with a time of 21:52 to finish in 75th. Freshman Luke Johnson, in his first varsity race, was only seconds from his personal best time with 24:31 to finish 88th.

The varsity girls runners also had a good meet, finishing 12th out of 16 in the team standings. Freshman Hanna Schneider lead the Mid-Prairie girls in the two mile race with a 62nd place finish in a time of 16:41. Taylor Powell, a sophomore, followed Schneider with a time of 17:19 for 67th place. Another sophomore, Heidi Miksch, was close behind Powell, placing 70th in 17:27. Sophomore Sarah Adyniec took 77th place with a time of 17:53 and freshman Rachel Patterson came home in 79th with 18:12.

“Conditions were not ideal for this meet,” Curtis remarked. “It had just rained and some of the hills were slippery and hard to run up. Despite these conditions and the fact that this is on of the most difficult courses in the area, our team turned in some great performances.”

Curtis said he was particularly pleased with the performance of the boys team.

“Tad has continuously cut time off of his personal record. Today he cut nearly a minute off of last week’s time. Adam has not been able to attend practice due to being in the fall play and has had to run on his own, yet he turned in a record performance too. Justin gave up a major role in the play to concentrate on running and it paid off for him as he also had a PR. And Luke has a heart as big as his body. He gave it his all today ad just ran out of gas on the final hills. He still ran his second best time of the year.

“As for the girls, I surprised them today by entering them in a varsity race,” Curtis admitted. “They were ready to run in the JV division an hour earlier. So when I told them they were running varsity, I think it bothered their concentration and caused then to be tentative in the first mile, thus they were a little slower. I was still pleased with their team placing. The girls did a good job. I am proud of them.”