Hostetler and Fleming finish 1-2 at River Valley championships

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 10/12/22

Just like the previous two years, Danielle Hostetler finished over 35 seconds ahead of the field to take first place in the River Valley Conference championship race. But this time, next across the …

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Hostetler and Fleming finish 1-2 at River Valley championships

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Just like the previous two years, Danielle Hostetler finished over 35 seconds ahead of the field to take first place in the River Valley Conference championship race. But this time, next across the finish line was Mid-Prairie teammate Abby Fleming.

It was the first 1-2 finish for the Golden Hawk juniors since their eighth grade state championship race. 

Hostetler, a two-time 2A state champion, said that the Golden Hawks wanted to push the pace at the Kickers Soccer Park on Tuesday. 

The  goal was to “just do the best we can and run hard,” she said. “We were going to try to risk it a little more, try going out a little harder the first mile. And just see if we could keep that pace.”

The second-ranked Golden Hawks finished runner up to No. 1 Monticello, who won the meet with 57 points.

Mid-Prairie’s third runner, Phoebe Shetler, was sick and missed the conference meet. If Shetler had again finished third for the Golden Hawks on Tuesday, her score would have made up the 12-point difference. 

Finishing a close second, despite the absence of Shetler, gives the Golden Hawks a confidence boost heading into the state-qualifying meet and the state championship on October 28. 

“It's a pretty awesome feeling — kind of like we have a secret weapon, when we have Phoebe,” Hostetler said. 

Hostetler’s winning time was 19:28. Fleming finished in 20:07 with a 23-second lead on the third-place finisher from Beckman Catholic. 

Abby said that she got some helpful advice early in the race from Golden Hawk assistant coach Aaron Fleming. 

“At about the half mile my dad told me I was too slow,” she laughed. “So I sped up.”

With Shetler out, Greta Sieren stepped up as Mid-Prairie’s third runner to finish 17th with a time of 21:39. Dessa Poll was 26th with a finish of 22:11 and Tabitha Evans won a sprint to the finish line for 29th. She edged a Beckman senior by two tenths of a second with her time of 22:28 to round out the scoring. 

Her fellow senior Amara Jones pushed her with a season-best finish of 22:35.

“I was so proud of especially Tabitha and Amara,” Hostetler said. “They moved up a ton just to run phenomenal races. I'm so proud of them.”

Annika Poll was 35th with a finish of 23:00. She has been working her way back after a fall that kept her out of the Clipper Classic on September 26. Ivy Reschly finished 37th with a time of 23:22. 

Hannah Rodgers and Kali Miller each set a new PR on a tough course, finishing with times of 25:41 and 25:51. 

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