Albia put some pressure on the Golden Hawks during the 2A state-qualifying meet in Pella on Thursday, but the five-time defending state champs were able to execute their game plan. 

“It was unusual for the girls to run against a team that could beat them — and it was close,” Mid-Prairie coach Mark Hostetler said. “You could tell they felt this extra pressure because I had told them ahead of time who they needed to run with. And they did.” 

Six of the seven Golden Hawk runners finished ahead of their Blue Demon counterparts as Mid-Prairie won the meet with 49 points to Albia’s 54. 

“After everyone had finished, it was a few minutes later that someone told us that we had won and it was a pretty amazing feeling,” said Danielle Hostetler, who finished in first for Mid-Prairie. “I’m just so proud of all these girls. I know we all work hard for this.”

While Hostetler’s winning time of 19:08 was over a minute faster than Albia freshman McKenna Montgomery in second place, the big difference maker in the points was Mid-Prairie’s fifth runner, Dessa Poll. Poll finished three places ahead of Albia’s fifth runner, accounting for three of five points in the margin of victory. 

“Dessa really made a big difference, stepping up and running 21:38 — an amazing effort on her part, knowing how hard she pushed it,” Mark Hostetler said.

With a third-place time of 20:21, Abby Fleming finished one spot ahead of Albia’s second runner. Phoebe Shetler, who missed the conference meet with an illness one week earlier, finished a spot ahead of Albia’s third runner with a ninth-place time of 20:59.

“I was a little disappointed,” Shetler said. “I was hoping to break 20 minutes and I ended up getting high 20. But it's not as important this week, to have a great time, as it is next week. So I'm pretty happy with how I did. It's not the slowest I've ever run.”

The runners ran two loops around the Pella Sports Complex on Thursday. 

The course was a little bumpy in the first mile, but overall it was a pretty flat course,” Shetler said. “The weather was pretty Jim-dandy, you can't really ask for better. The temperature wasn't too hot, not too cold. And it's been pretty cool recently.”

Greta Sieren was Mid-Prairie’s fourth runner with a 17th-place finish of 21:20. The Golden Hawks would have been in good shape if Amara Jones’ had been needed as a tiebreaker. She finished eight spots ahead of Albia’s sixth runner with a time of 22:14. Tabitha Evans was 33rd with a time of 22:44. 

“Everybody ran well, but I think they were fairly tense,” Hostetler said. “It doesn’t help when you have an hour and a half bus ride, but I think I think the stress maybe got to them a little bit and made them run a little tight.

“But when you’re at state, you can kind of run your own race. You notice other people but there are so many of them, that you don't have time to really think, you just run hard. I think that'll help us.”

The 2A girls state championship race begins at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, October 28 at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge.

Results