Mitzi Evans owned the fastest 800-meter time in Class 2A heading into the Drake Relays on Thursday. By the time she left Drake Stadium, she had the fastest 400-meter time as well. 

Evans finished fourth overall in the 400-meter dash, becoming the first Golden Hawk in program history to run the race in under 58 seconds. 

“I knew I had a lot more competition and I knew it’d be tougher, but I told myself, you’ve just got to run it like it’s a normal 400 and then give all you have,” Evans said.

She broke the Mid-Prairie school record in the 400-meter dash earlier this year, and lowered it to 57.54 on Thursday

It was special for Evans to be back on the blue oval at Drake Stadium after missing the opportunity to run in the state meet as a sophomore due to the pandemic. 

“I felt like last year, it really took a blow, especially to me and my sisters. We were pretty bummed about it,” Evans said. “But then I felt like God said, No, now’s not the time. You know, you have to wait. And I feel like this year, he’s kind of answering. You know, opening up the door again, telling me, OK, now is your time.”

Evans finished 10th in the 800-meter run at Drake. She was in second place after 400 meters, but was unable to keep that pace over the second lap. Her time of 2:20.52 was 14 hundreths of a second off of her best time of the season. 

Mid-Prairie senior Tori Boyse set a new career-best in the discus with a throw of 120-09, missing the finals by one inch.

“It was good competition, that was probably the reason I PRed and did as good as I did,” Boyse said. 

“It was a lot of nerves, not going to lie,” Boyse said about being back at Drake Stadium. “But it was such a nice day. 

Boyse, who finished 22nd out of 25 in the shot put with a throw of 35-11.75, finished 10th overall in the discus. She has the third-best discus throw in 2A so far this season, but she finished first among 2A qualifiers on Thursday. If Boyse can top the 2A competition at Drake Stadium again in May, she’ll come away with a state championship. 

“There’s some good competition, but I’m just kind of working on myself and getting a PR for myself,” she said. “I’m not really worried about the competition. Of course I love competing, but I want to worry about my own goals first.”

Freshman Danielle Hos-tetler had been to Drake Stadium many times before Thursday to watch her older sisters Anna and Marie win state championships and Drake Relays titles on the blue oval. 

“It was like a dream come true,” Hostetler said. “ That was the most amazing feeling. I have wanted to run there ever since I was really little. I loved watching my sisters and cheering for them and I would get really nervous for their races. And I was finally there.”

She finished ninth in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:52.56, which was two tenths of a second faster than her previous season-best. She set a new personal record in the 3000-meter with a seventh-place finish of 10:15.96. 

“I was just trying to stay in the front pack,” Hostetler said about her 3000 meter. “I stayed with them until about the last 800 and then I kind of tightened up and got tired.”

Although Hostetler dropped from fifth to seventh place on the final lap, her split over the last 400-meters was 1:22.40 — her fastest lap of the race. 

The Mid-Prairie girls 4x100-meter relay did not have its best race at the Drake Relays, but still finished 29th out of the 48 best sprint relays in the state. Amber Swart, Alyssa McDowell, Maddie Edginton, and Amara Jones qualified for the Drake Relays with a time of 50.94 and finished Thursday’s race with a time of 51.61, which was fifth among the 2A competitors. 

The Golden Hawks rushed home after the Drake Relays on Thursday for Mid-Prairie’s home meet and senior night. 

The 4x100 finished in first place by a wide margin of over two seconds with a time of 51.76. Edgington finished first in the 200-meter dash with a new personal record of 26.93, the 12th fastest time in 2A. 

The Golden Hawks finished 1-2-3 in the 100-meter hurdles, led by Behla Schmidt. Mid-Prairie also won the shuttle hurdle relay. Sydney Yoder won the 1500-meter run and Phoebe Shetler edged Abby Fleming by half a second for first place in the 3000.

Madeline Schrader jumped 15-03 to take first place in the long jump by half an inch. 

100-meter dash
4. Emma Lueck 14.12
6. Landry Pacha 14.24
15. Molly Yoder 14.83

200-meter dash
1. Maddie Edgington 26.93

400-meter dash
5. Grace Conway 1:10.80
12. Paige Safly 1:13.91
15. Anna Nafziger 1:15.33

800-meter run
6. Greta Sieren 2:48.97
7. Phoebe Shetler 2:50.50

110-meter hurdles
1 Behla Schmidt 17.26
2. Amara Jones 17.44
3. Sidney Davis 17.82

1500-meter run
1. Sydney Yoder 5:14.92
3. Ana Fleming 5:21.08

3000-meter run
1. Phoebe Shetler 11:30.16
2. Abby Fleming 11:30.63

Discus
3. Tori Boyse 108-11
13. Ashlyn Gugel 72-11
16. Emma Baker 68-00
24. Lacee Kos 55-08
28. Kali Miller 45-09

High jump
2. Nora Pennington 4-09
3. Paige Safly 4-08
3. Landry Pacha 4-08

Long jump
1. Madeline Schrader 15-03
4. Emma Lueck 14-08
5. Colby Brown 14-05
7. Behla Schmidt 14-03.5

Shot put
3. Tori Boyse 35-05.5
15. Lacee Kos 27-07.25
20. Ashlyn Gugel 25-06.5
22. Kali Miller 22-03.25
25. Emma Baker 20-08

4x100-meter relay
1 Swart, McDowell, Edgington, Jones 51.76
5. Lueck, Davis, Pennington, Brown 55.17

4x200-meter relay
8. Pennington, Pacha, Schlabach, Schrader 2:03.64
11. Lueck, Poll, Yoder, Harmston 2:17.97

4x400-meter relay
10. Sieren, Schmidt, Fleming, Nonnenmann 4:45.33
12. Meader, Conway, Fleming, Harmston 5:14.44

4x800-meter relay
2. Yoder, Sieren, Fleming, Poll 10:34.71

Shuttle hurdle
1. Davis, Schmidt, Pennington, Schlabach 1;15.47

Sprint medley
8. Yoder, Safly, Harmston, Meader 2:17.79

Distance medley
1. Brown, Schrader, Nonnenmann, Yoder 4:33.23