First, there is Mitzi. A six-time state team champion at Mid-Prairie in track and cross country. Second-fastest sprinter in the girls 200-meter dash in Iowa Class 2A this year.

Then, there is another Mitzi. Mom. Organizer. Teacher.

Then, Mitzi the grandmom.

Mitzi and Mitzi and Mitzi.

So … do you think family means something around the Evans home?

Well, if you’re not totally convinced by now, Mitzi shares a bedroom with her younger sister Tabitha and they have shared that room since Tabitha, now a junior sprinter on Mid-Prairie’s girls track team, was 4 years old.

“We’re like really close,” Mitzi says. “We share a bedroom, so sometimes at night we’re just talking about track. We really enjoy it. I’m really glad that we had each other to train with, train together in the offseason.”

Mitzi and Tabitha have two sisters.

So imagine what Mom’s Day was like this past Sunday.

“Mitzi?”

“Yes?”

“Oh, not you, Mitzi. I’m looking for Mitzi.”

On May 5, after she won the 200-meter dash in the River Valley Conference championship meet with the seventh-fastest time in the state this year (25.52 seconds), all classes, Mitzi, the youngest one, high-fived her Mid-Prairie teammates. She shared laughs. She enjoyed the moment.

“I’m having lots of fun,” she said. “It’s been a really hectic but great year. It’s just like great.”

And the fun part is really kicking up because Mitzi knows that her world will soon be changing. Her final high school track day at Drake University’s “Blue Oval” is coming up. She’ll graduate. And then it’s off to the University of Iowa as a freshman to concentrate on academics, not track.

“It hasn’t been at the forefront of my brain, but I’ve been thinking a lot this year, I’m really gonna miss this,” Mitzi said. “I knew it was going to end, but like, I don’t know, it’s gonna be weird because it’s going to shift my whole entire life over. It’s been a part of my life for so long.”

So long. Not just track and cross country, but also her mom, Mitzi. The homeschooling and being driven to meets. Stepping back into the comfort of a room she has shared with her sister since they were little girls.

“Our schedules are going to be really different,” said Tabitha Evans, a sprinter for the Golden Hawks relay teams and also homeschooled alongside Mitzi. “It’s going to be really hard. We probably won’t see each other as much and stuff like that. It’s going to be a big change there.”

This isn’t just a bond between two girls and a mom who love track. It goes so much deeper than that.

This is family.

“It’s really nice. Me and Mitzi, it’s like we have a special sister bond,” Tabitha said. “We both love track so much. We both bond over that, talk about it a lot. It’s great having that. It brings us closer. We train together, do so much together. It’s great having her as sister, teammate, friend and everything else.”

And then there’s mom. Super mom, really.

“She drives us around a lot of places, to practice just because I’m not really skilled when it comes to driving,” Mitzi said with a chuckle. “She drives us to practice, she drives me to my class. She really helps us a lot when it comes time to juggling schooling and running. Every day before meets and stuff, she prepares lists of what we should probably do. She’s really supportive. I’m really thankful for that.”

“She helps me out with my schooling,” Tabitha said. “She’s an amazing teacher. She helps a few other kids with homeschooling, which is great.”

If you’ve been to a Mid-Prairie cross country meet, you’ve seen mom shouting and running from place to place along the course as the race takes place. Pretty much, it’s Mitzi chasing after Mitzi.

“She’s really passionate,” Mitzi the daughter said. “I’m so thankful. She’s such a blessing.”

The emotions will certainly be flowing as both Mitzi and Tabitha head toward the Class 2A state championship meet with the Golden Hawks. A state qualifier is May 12 at Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. Mid-Prairie has won three consecutive state titles. Mitzi’s only empty year was 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic eliminated the spring track season.

Mitzi placed second in the 800, third in the 400 and fourth in the 200 at last year’s state championship, and ran the third leg of Mid-Prairie’s winning distance medley team, handing the baton off to anchor runner Danielle Hostetler, a sophomore who won two races at the conference championships and is the defending state champion in the 1500 and 3000.

“Mitzi is amazing,” Hostetler said. “Every time she runs, everyone just goes, ‘Wow.’ She is like amazing. Every single time. Everyone is just in awe.”

And yet, there are those days when Tabitha is the one doing the pushing.

“When I’m feeling tired and not wanting to run,” Mitzi said, “she’s like, “No, Mitzy, you can do it,’ and vice versa. So I’m really glad we have each other.”

The sister bond.

Forever.

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul.