Golden Hawks among the best in the Midwest

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 9/22/21

It was a state meet atmosphere at the Heartland Classic on Saturday in Pella. Over 220 runners and 33 teams participated in the girls varsity race hosted by Central College. 

The course was …

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Golden Hawks among the best in the Midwest

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It was a state meet atmosphere at the Heartland Classic on Saturday in Pella. Over 220 runners and 33 teams participated in the girls varsity race hosted by Central College. 

The course was packed and the races were fast. 

Dallas Center - Grimes, ranked No. 2 in Class 3A and 2020 state runner-up finished all the way back in 20th in the loaded field on Saturday. 

The Mid-Prairie girls were fifth behind three of the top seven teams in 4A along with Papillion-LaVista out of Nebraska. 

“The competition was unbelievable,” Mid-Prairie coach Mark Hostetler said. “Teams from all the surrounding western states — Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota. To finish as well as we did with the girls, it was amazing how well they did.”

All six varsity runners who ran at the Pell Dutch Invitational two weeks ago turned in faster times on Saturday, including senior Jaden Yoder who took over 30 seconds off of her time to tie a season best, finishing 51st in 20:32. 

“I just had a better mindset,” Yoder said. “I didn’t want to settle and I wanted to continue to move up. I guess I was just more mentally tough today.”

Senior Sydney Yoder was also faster by over half a minute, finishing 33rd in 20:04. Sophomore Phoebe Shetler finished 56th with a time of 20:39. Senior Mitzi Evans was back on the course for the first time since August 28th. She was 97th with a time of 21:26 to round out the scoring for Mid-Prairie. 

The Golden Hawk girls finished ahead of four teams in the 4A rankings, including No. 12 Linn-Mar and No. 13 City High. 

“I’m proud of all of them,” Jaden Yoder said about her teammates. “They did great and finished farther up than we did last year, which is awesome.”

Mid-Prairie finished eighth at the meet last year, without Danielle Hostetler, who suffered a hip injury early in the season. 

Hostetler’s streak of 10 consecutive first-place finishes came to an end on Saturday as Hopkins (Minnesota) freshman Sydney Drevolw won the race with a time of 18:03. Hostetler finished in fourth with a time of 18:32. Pleasant Valley freshman Grace Boleyn finished second, the only Iowan to finish ahead of Hostetler. Ballard junior and 3A state runner-up Paityn Noe, who won the race a year ago, finished in sixth. 

Drevolw started the race at a faster pace than Hostetler wanted to run, but running from behind was a new experience for Hostetler. 

“When somebody’s ahead of you, and you think you’re trying as hard as you can…” Mark Hostetler said. “Danielle slowed down quite a bit in the second mile. I think if she would have just stayed with what she’s capable of doing I think she could have at least got up there and tried to challenge at least for second and third, but it was a good learning experience for her.”

Sophomores Abby Fleming and Annika Poll ran times of 21:49 and 22:49 for the Golden Hawks. 

The boys finished 34th out of 42 teams, led by Thaddeus Shetler, who was 72nd out of 283 with a finish of 17:02. Freshman Emmett Swartzentruber was second among the Mid-Prairie runners on Saturday. 

“It was very chaotic, there was a lot of shoving,” said Swartzentruber, who used the downhill slopes to pass runners on Saturday. 

 “We were told to just go easier up the hills, and just fly downhill,” he said. “Especially in the second mile since it was pretty much all downhill.”

Mark Hostetler was thrilled with a time of 18:38 from Swartzentruber. 

“For a freshman, if they can run under 20, then they’re going to end up being a good runner throughout their high school career,” he said. “To run a minute and a half faster than that — it’s just amazing to think about what he can do.”

Chandler Hershberger finished with a time of 18:47, while Preston Yutzy had a time of 19:10 and Nathan Wallington finished in 19:18. 

“Today was a good test for them to see how they could do with a lot of really good runners,” Hosteler said. “As a team, we didn’t finish that high, but we had one good thing. Our sixth runner, a lot of times they don’t think they count and today they did.”

The Golden Hawks finished tied with Gilbert for 34th, but won the tiebreaker because freshman Jayse Yoder was 10 spots ahead of Gilbert’s sixth runner with a time of 19:38. 

“A lot of times your sixth runners, for boys and the girls, they tend not to push it because they know they’re not a scorer and it’s always a struggle,” Hostetler said. “But today with our sixth runner, that didn’t happen.”

 

RESULTS

Girls Varsity

4. Danielle Hosteter 18:32

33. Sydney Yoder 20:04

51. Jaden Yoder 20:32

56. Phoebe Shetler 20:39

97. Mitzi Evans 21:26

121. Abby Fleming 21:49

166. Annika Poll 22:49

Boys Varsity

72. Thaddeus Shetler 17:02

192. Emmett Swartzentruber 18:38

201. Chandler Hershberger 18:47

226. Preston Yutzy 19:10

232. Nathan Wallington 19:18

245. Jayse Yoder 19:38

258. Robert Nagy 20:01