Mid-Prairie’s Danielle Hostetler and Cain Brown head to Des Moines this week for rare double-double appearances in high school track & field at the Drake Relays.

Hostetler, a junior who has won three consecutive state cross country championships and a state title in the girls 3000-meter run last year, qualified in both the 1500 and 3000 high school girls races at the Relays.

Brown, a fourth-place finisher in the high jump at last year’s state championship meet, qualified for the Relays in both the boys high jump and long jump.

“I am very excited to have qualified for both high jump and long jump,” said Brown, a senior who was a receiver for the Golden Hawks football team. “I’m ready to compete with the best in the state.”

Hostetler finished fourth in the 1500 at the Drake Relays last year.

Also headed for Des Moines in the 4x100 and 4x200 relay events are Mid-Prairie’s Madeline Schrader, Amara Jones, Jovi Evans and Tabitha Evans.

It’ll make for a busy week in Des Moines less than a month before the state championships are to be held at Drake University’s famed Blue Oval. Hostetler kicks things off in the 3000 at 6:07 p.m. Thursday. Finals in the girls 4x200 relay are at 12:47 p.m. Friday, followed by the 4x100 finals Saturday at 4:29. The girls 1500 will take place at 4:39 p.m. Saturday.

Brown will compete in the high jump Thursday and long jump Friday.

Track and Prom

For the first time in 10 years, Lone Tree will have a girls squad at the Drake Relays and it will be a long day considering their races will come on the same day (Saturday) as the school’s prom.

Vivian Zaruba, Ava Christofferson, Riley Krueger and Rylee Shield will compete in the 4x100 relay. They finished second to Center Point-Urbana at the Eastern Iowa Track & Field Invitational two weeks ago at Iowa City West.

“It should be a fun experience for them,” said Chad Shield, Lone Tree head coach and father of Rylee. “Then they turn around, get home and get ready for prom that evening.”

Sectional Qualifiers

Mid-Prairie will head to Tipton for its Class 2A state track qualifying meet May 11. The girls are seeking their fifth consecutive state championship.

Lone Tree, Highland and Hillcrest will all compete in their 1A qualifier at WACO.

All qualifiers begin at 4 p.m. The state track meet is set for May 18-20 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Dual Head Coach

Daren Lambert will become a rare head coach in two sports at the same school when he takes over the Mid-Prairie football program next fall. He already is the boys basketball head coach and led the Golden Hawks to the basketball state tournament in 2022.

Lambert’s promotion from defensive coordinator to head coach was approved by the Mid-Prairie School Board on Monday night.

He replaces Pete Cavanagh, a social studies teacher at Mid-Prairie who ended his 19-year run as head coach after last season. Cavanagh holds the school record for football wins with 123.

An interesting side story to next fall’s season opener: The Golden Hawks will face Wilton, the school that ended Mid-Prairie’s basketball season in February.

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