Eight days removed from her third straight state championship, Marie Hostetler one-upped herself.

The Mid-Prairie senior ran a personal best of 17:27.4 to place third in the Heartland Region and earn an individual spot in the Nike National Cross Country race in Portland, Ore., next month.

Hostetler went out early with the lead pack. Her first mile was clocked in 5:41.1 and Hostetler was in fifth place at that point.

She ran her second mile with a nearly even split of 5:41.8 and had moved up two spots into third place behind Meghan Ford from North Dakota and Analee Weaver from Minnesota. The Heartland Regional meet features the top cross country runners from Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

She held onto her third-place spot in the final mile of the race, running a 6:04 split for the final 1.1 miles of the race for a time of 17:27.4. After Ford came in 17:19 to win the race, Hostetler was in a tight pack for the next few spots. Five runners came in within four seconds of each other for the second-through fifth-place finishers.

There are eight regional competitions around the United States and the top two teams and top five individuals not on a qualifying team make the national race in December. Hostetler was the No. 2 individual qualifier from the Heartland region. After all eight regional qualifiers are finished, at-large bids are given out to increase the individual pool to 50 runners. There are 22 teams that qualify for the race.

Hostetler’s time of 17:27.4 would have placed eighth in last year’s race.

Last year’s winner was Katelyn Tuohy from the New York region in 16:37.8. She returns for a senior season this year.

It was the first time Hostetler has qualified for a national race, with this being her fourth try. Her freshman and sophomore years she ran at the midwest regional hosted by Foot Locker. Both Nike and Foot Locker hold national postseason races. Both attract top talent around the country. Her junior year she switched over to the Nike postseason race and placed 10th with a time of 17:55, just narrowly missing a spot. This year there was no doubt with a huge improvement and personal best to qualify.

Hostetler is the first individual qualifier out of the Heartland region for an Iowa girl since Linn-Mar alum Stephanie Jenks did so in 2015.

Hostetler committed to run at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., earlier this season. 

The Nike National Cross Country race will take place on Dec. 7 in Portland at 11:35 a.m. A stream of the race will be broadcast for free on RunnerSpace.com.