title since 1986

Mid-Prairie girls track coach Bob Barrick left Fr…

By Mark Adkins

M-P girls win first meet

title since 1986

Mid-Prairie girls track coach Bob Barrick left Friday night's first Golden Hawk co-ed track meet knowing what the word "team" means in track.

"We had everybody in there tonight, helping us get every point we could," he said. "We needed all of those points, too. It was a total team effort."

Sparked by a near sweep of the field events, the Golden Hawk girls wound up the evening with 144 points, 28 more than runner-up Marion.

The meet title was the first for the M-P girls track program since 1986 when Barrick's team won the Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference title. It marked the second time this season a long meet title drought had been broken at Mid-Prairie as the boys had won a meet title earlier this year (at Washington) for the first time since 1982.

"It was exciting for the girls to be able to do this," Barrick said. "We had so many girls step up in different areas and contribute to this meet win."

As mentioned earlier, the meet victory for the Golden Hawks started in the field events. Freshman shot putter Amber Ihrig, completing her comeback from an early-season injury, won her event with a best effort of 31 feet, eight inches, while freshman high jumper Erin Ruffin cleared four feet, six inches in the high jump for a win and junior Jaime Krantz held off HLV of Victor's Gigi Fairchild by half-an-inch to win the long jump (14 feet, seven and half inches). The discus was the only field event the Golden Hawk girls didn't claim.

Their run didn't stop there. Pamela Diaz started things off with a bang in the running events, winning the 3000 in a time of 12:17.72. Pam Harland pulled off a sweep of the 100 and 200 meter events, coasting to the 100 title (12.72 seconds, four-tenths better than runner-up Robin Sullivan of HLV) and narrowly missing the school record in the 200 with a time 26.7 seconds (just a tenth of a second off the record pace).

Freshman hurdler Nicole Bontrager and senior hurdler Tiffany Curtis really put a stamp on the meet for the Golden Hawks in the 400 meter low hurdles.

The twosome pulled off a one-two sweep of the event with Bontrager finishing first in a time of 1:12.1 and Curtis adding a second-place mark in a time of 1:14.31. M-P's final event title came in the last event of the evening, capturing the 4x400 meter relay in a time of 4:28.01, 13 seconds better than runner-up HLV.

"Of course, we did need some breaks to win the meet," Barrick said. "The biggest break we got was when Marion's 100 meter hurdler was disqualified. That did open the door for us.

"As I mentioned earlier, eveybody contributed to the win, even in ways some of the kids might not have before," he added. "The older kids in the sprint relays really stepped up and were very consistent, while the younger kids added points in other areas to help us."

The Golden Hawk girls completed the evening with a rousing version of "Happy Birthday" to assistant coach Marge McArtor.

As for the Iowa Mennonite School girls, they also received rave reviews from their coach, Mark Hostetler, following a fourth-place finish with 73 points.

"The girls performed very well considering they were without Sarah Schneider and Ashley Bender," he said. "A lot of the girls came through for us tonight. I was especially happy with Gretchen Peiffer's shot put outing and Mary Leichty's distance events. Mary was sick, but still managed to win the mile and help us in some relays.

"The distance events were a highlight," he added. "The girls in those races really stepped it up."

Leichty's mile title (5:40.74) was the only event title for IMS. The Maroon and Black finished with a one-two sweep in the event as Natalie Marner was second in a time of 6:09.65.

Boys

In a hotly-contested team race, HLV narrowly held off Marion and IMS for the meet title. The Warriors finished the night with 100 points, eight better than IMS' 92 and nine better than Marion's 91. Mid-Prairie wound up fourth with 63 points.

Hostetler's team did all of their work without two of their sprinting stars, Nate Linstrom and Zach Grimm.

"We wanted to make sure Nate and Zach are ready for conference and districts next week," Hostetler said. "The other guys stepped up again, though, as they have of late. I was very impressed with our 4x8 team as they took several seconds off their previous season best."

Doug Hochstedler (3200 - 10:31.23), Michael Stutzman (200 meter dash - 23.3) and David Rhodes (400 meter low hurdles - 57.48) won the event titles for the Maroon and Black.

The Golden Hawks' evening was highlighted by the 4x200 meter relay team of Michael Huston, Seth Fisher, Adam Kos and Brent Showalter. Coming into the evening ranked 23rd in the state in the event in Class 2A (top 24 go to state), the team shaved a second off their previous best time, coming in at 1:34.16. Showalter added the only other title for M-P, winning the 100 meter dash in a time of 11.2 seconds.

"That 4x2 race was really something," coach Steve Hollan said. "I think the guys now have it in their heads that they can run it that fast and if we get a better night weather-wise, we could shave even more time off."

Hollan also pointed at Tyrell Gingerich's distance performance and sophomore Brad Yotty's outing in the discus as pleasant surprises.

"Tyrell put together two great halves in the 4x8 and mile medley," Hollan said. "Brad was also very strong in the discus. His 116-foot best throw would have placed him in the varsity meet."

1999 Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk

Co-Ed Invitational

Team standings

Girls

1. M-P 144, 2. Marion 116, 3. HLV 109, 4. IMS 73, 5. BGM 37

Boys

1. HLV 100, 2. IMS 92, 3. Marion 91, 4. M-P 63, 5. English Valleys 60, 6. BGM 30

IMS, M-P second-sixth place

finishes

High jump (girls) - 3. Hannah Rumsey, IMS 4'4”, 4. Harland 4'4”

3000 meter run (girls) - 2. Marner, IMS 12:51.77, 3. Ylva Elebro, IMS 14:13.09, 4. Nicole Immerman, M-P 14:55.43

Long jump (girls) - 5. Nicole Bontrager, M-P 13'5”

Discus (boys) - 3. Shay Hansen, IMS 115' 5”, 4. Jeff Gingerich, M-P 111'4”

Long jump (boys) - 2. David Rhodes, IMS 19' 1/2”, 6. Adam Kos, M-P 16'10”

3200 meter run (boys) - 2. Kurt Beachy, IMS 11:03.91

High jump (boys) - 2. Seth Fisher, M-P 5'8”

4x800 meter relay (girls) - 2. IMS 11:23.27, 4. M-P 11:51.5

Shuttle hurdle relay (girls) - 2. M-P 1:17.35, 3. IMS 1:22.75

Shot put (boys) - 2. Hansen 41'9”, 5. Gingerich 36'7”, 6. Justin Yoder, M-P 36'3”

Distance medley relay (girls) - 3. M-P 4:59.12, 4. IMS 5:28.97

Discus (girls) - 4. Stephanie Beeler, M-P 81'10”, 6. Ihrig 72'7”

100 meter dash (boys) - 2. Rhodes 11.79, 3. Michael Huston, M-P 11.8

100 meter dash (girls) - 3. Nikki Slaubaugh, IMS 14.26, 4. Terri Huber, M-P 14.5

4x800 meter relay (boys) - 3. M-P 8:59.18, 4. IMS 8:59.65

400 meter dash (girls) - 2. N. Bontrager 1:04.4

4x200 meter dash (girls) - 2. M-P 1:56.56, 4. IMS 2:20.62

1600 meter run (boys) - 2. Hochstedler 5:06.3, 3. Jeff Miller, IMS 5:12.33

100 meter hurdles (girls) - 5. Candace Richardson, M-P 18.13, 6. Courtney Richardson, M-P 18.25

4x200 meter relay (boys) - 4. IMS 1:44.44

800 meter run (girls) - 2. Leichty 2:42.89, 3. Jill Miksch, M-P 2:45.15, 6.Heidi Miksch, M-P 2:58.12

400 meter dash (boys) - 2. Showalter 53.98, 3. Stutzman 54.68

200 meter dash (girls) - 4. Slaubaugh 29.96

400 meter low hurdles (girls) - 4. Kim Miller, IMS 1:18.88

Mile medley relay (boys) - 2. M-P 3:53.79, 5. IMS 4:05.37

Sprint medley relay (girls) - 3. M-P 2:09.06, 5. IMS 2:14.37

800 meter run (boys) - 5. Larry Lockett, IMS 2:15.84, 6. Ben Moore, IMS 2:17.12

1500 meter run (girls) - 4. Amanda Rodgers, M-P 6:36.91, 6. Taylor Powell, M-P 6:48.22

4x100 meter relay (girls) - 3. M-P 57.62, 5. IMS 59.59

4x100 meter relay (boys) - 3. IMS 48.9, 4. M-P 49.97

4x400 meter relay (girls) - 3. IMS 4:57.4

4x400 meter relay (boys) - 3. IMS 3:47.05, 4. M-P 3:51.15