WELLMAN
The last time Jeremy Meyers was head coach of Mid-Prairie’s cross country teams on an interim basis in 2023, he watched Emmett Swartzentruber capture a boys individual state championship on a cold day in Fort Dodge.
This year, Meyers has the permanent job and the state championship platform is clearly the target again.
Mid-Prairie’s girls team features two of the fastest distance runners in the state, seniors Kendal Landstrum and Brooklyn Stutzman, both of them Top 10 finishers in the Iowa 2A 3000-meter run at the state track championships at Drake University.
And the boys team includes Max Swartzentruber, the younger brother of Emmett who won his first River Valley Conference individual title as a junior last year.
The starting gun will fire for the first time Tuesday (Aug. 25) at Elliott Athletic Complex in Mount Vernon, when the Golden Hawks begin the season in a challenging eight-team meet that includes Mount Vernon-Lisbon and Center Point-Urban, the No. 3 and No. 8 teams in the 3A girls state meet in 2025.
Joining Landstrum and Stutzman on the girls squad are senior Kyrie Poll, juniors Rachel Hostetler and Tessa Brokaw, and sophomore Nikkari Poll. Kyrie Poll ran the second leg on the Golden Hawks’ 4x100 relay team at the state track championship, finishing second, and also ran legs on the 4x800 and 4x1600.
Three returnees (Stutzman, Hostetler and Kyrie Poll) posted Top 100 finishes at the cross country meet in 2025 and three (Stutzman, Brokaw and Hostetler) finished among the Top 15 at the River Valley championship meet.
Meyers is confident of a run after a state championship for a program that won six girls championships and one boys championship since 2016. Along the way toward Fort Dodge, the Golden Hawks will hit the Iowa City Kickers complex for the Clear Creek Amana Invitational on Sept. 28 and the River Valley championship meet Oct. 13.
“We’ve got a good team this year,” Meyers said. “The girls are going to be super fast.”
In the last 10 years, the Mid-Prairie girls have won six state titles, and finished in the Top Five three times. The girls and boys finished one-two at the state meet in 2024 and 2017.
Swartzentruber is the leading returner for a boys team that will include senior teammates Reece Waters, Ben Lothamer and Jonathon Pickard, junior Cayse Damschen and sophomore Archie Damschen. Jacob Lothamer, a freshman, is expected to be one of the Golden Hawks’ top newcomers.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN HAWKS
Cross Country head coach: Jeremy Meyers, first full season as head coach
2025 state finish: The Mid-Prairie girls finished ninth.
2025 River Valley: The Mid-Prairie girls won the team title by 29 points and junior Brooklyn Stutzman finished third individually.
Top returning girls: Brooklyn Stutzman had a career-best seventh-place finish as a junior at the 2025 state championships; Kendal Landstrum, a returning senior who missed much of last year’s cross country season due to injury, recovered with a strong spring season, finishing fifth in the 1500-meter run and seventh in the 3000 at the state championships at Drake.
Top returning boy: Max Swartzentruber, a senior who won last year’s River Valley Conference individual title with a personal-best time of 17:03 and then finished 59th in the state championship meet.
Opening meet: August 25 at Mount Vernon Invitational, Elliott Athletic Complex.
2026 state meet: October 30, Fort Dodge.
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