WELLMAN

When Mid-Prairie opens its cross country season at Mount Vernon on August 27, the world will seem so different.

For the first time in five years, the Golden Hawks will be without Danielle Hostetler, a 2024 graduate who dominated cross country running in the state for four seasons and who is now a freshman at Liberty University.

For the first time in eight years, the Golden Hawks will be without a returning state champion on the girls side: Danielle won three state titles in three years, older sister Marie also won three state titles and oldest sister Anna won it once.

But another Hostetler will be back. After one year off, Mark Hostetler returns as head coach.

Switch over to the boys, and the story becomes even more intriguing.

Mark Hostetler welcomes the return of yet another Mid-Prairie state champion: Emmett Swartzentruber won the Iowa Class 2A boys state championship last October with a personal-best run of 15 minutes, 51 seconds.

Swartzentruber leads a boys team that posted a 10th-place finish at the 2023 state championship meet, and finished third in a 2A state qualifier and second at the Clear Creek Amana Invitational.

The Mid-Prairie girls team, which has become a dominant team in the state with eight consecutive Top 5 state finishes, will usher in a new group of strong runners in 2024. Among them are Brooklyn Stutzman and Kendal Landstrum, who made the state varsity squad as freshmen last year. Stutzman finished 37th individually in her state meet debut and Landstrum was 51st.

Among those joining Swartzentruber, a senior, on the boys team is Preston Yutzy, a senior who finished 39th in the state meet.

Swartzentruber was one of five in the top six finishers at the 2023 state meet who set personal bests at Fort Dodge. Only one of those other five was a senior, setting up a battle for a 2A state title this year that will likely involve Swartzentruber, Okoboji Milford senior Evan Osler, Clarina senior Kyle Wagoner and Vinton-Shellsburg junior Alex Torres. Only 21 seconds separated them at the state meet.

Swartzentruber also posted a pair of personal bests in the 2024 state track meet, placing ninth in the boys 3200-meter run and 10th in the 1600.

The 2A state qualifying meets are scheduled for October 24. The state meet is set for November 2 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge.