Emmett Swartzentruber and Preston Yutzy both finished in the top 15 at Thursday’s state-qualifying meet, but the rest of the Golden Hawks were left waiting on the team results to see if they would join the two sophomores in the championship race at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge on October 28. 

When the final results were tallied, the Golden Hawks were eight points ahead of Grundy Center, taking third place and the final state-qualifying banner. 

“It feels really good,” said Mid-Prairie senior Nathan Wallington, who will be running in the 2A state cross meet for a fourth time. “I feel like I didn’t really have that great of a race, and one of my teammates stepped it up and made up for it, so I owe him one.”

Yutzy ran the best race of his career, finishing eighth with a time of 17:29, just 14 seconds behind Swartzentruber in sixth. 

“I was really surprised to see (Yutzy) in eighth place, because as far as the rankings, he was supposed to be low 20s,” Mid-Prairie coach Mark Hostetler said. “And to get eighth place, he ran an awesome race and that really helped the team score.”

The third-ranked Danville/New London team finished first as expected with 61 points and No. 9 Pella Christian was second with 73. Depth was key for the No. 14 Golden Hawks, who edged No. 9 Grundy Center 81-89 for third place. 

Freshman Jesse Stultz was running the race of his life on Thursday, when he lost consciousness approaching the finish line. 

“He was right there with me up to the finish chute,” said Wallington, who finished 17th with a time of 18:20. “I’ve never seen somebody run so hard that they physically pass out. That’s pretty impressive that he was able to push himself that hard and we’re proud of him.”

With Stultz unable to finish and Jayse Yoder still sidelined with a stress fracture, Mid-Prairie still put five runners in the top 30 to advance. 

“Before Jesse went down, I saw him passing everybody, running about a minute faster than he normally does,” Hostetler said. “I thought ‘great, we got this made, we’ve got Pella Christian beat.’ He went down and didn’t finish, and I thought, ‘well, that’s the end of that.’ And then when Jesse went down, I kind of forgot about the score and what was going on with that.”

Blake Creed finished 24th with a time of 18:33 and Daniel Rodgers finished 20 spots ahead of the fifth runner from Grundy Center with a 30th-place time of 18:53, which was critical for the Mid-Prairie win. Even without Rodgers, Jordan Stock’s 33rd place time of 19:07 would have given Mid-Prairie the points for third place. 

“Some of the parents came up and said, ‘I think we made it,’ and I was pretty surprised.” Hostetler said. 

Stultz left the meet in an ambulance, but has since recovered and returned to training over the weekend. 

“Even though Jesse didn’t finish, he sure gave it everything he had,” Hostetler said. “And so that was an outstanding performance by him.”

Swartzentruber led the Golden Hawks on Thursday after missing the previous meet. 

“Emmett ran a solid race,” Hostetler said. “He had been out at conference, he had been sick and so running 17:15 here — that’s a great time, getting sixth place.”

Hostetler praised Wallington and Creed for running solid times, even though they went out a little too fast at the start.

“When it's district and it's all down to who’s going to finish first, you want to get out in a good spot,” he said. “And sometimes you do that a little too fast, and some of our guys paid for it. But they still held on and finished well.”

The boys 2A state championship race will be held at 2:45 p.m. in Fort Dodge on Friday, following the girls race at 2:00.

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