Our fifth biggest athletic story from the most recent school year for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks takes us to the wrestling mat. Sectional Saturday was a big one for the Golden Hawk wrestling team. Overall, the Hawks were third in the team standings at Williamsburg with 169 points, falling short of advancing to regionals for the first time in school history by just 18 points.

Individually, a school record six Mid-Prairie wrestlers moved on to the district meet. The Golden Hawks had two champions on the day with junior Vinnie Bowlin at 152 and senior Isaac Boucher at 195 both reaching the top of the podium. Bowlin went 3-0 on the day, winning the championship match by 14-5 major decision over Gable Dayton of Williamsburg. Boucher matched him at 3-0 on the day, pinning his way to the championship, finishing Clark Younggreen in the title bout in just 1:20. Mid-Prairie head coach Justin Garvey talked about his two champions. “Bowlin and Boucher stuck to their stuff and wrestled their matches. That’s what we asked for all day long. Those two rose to the top. I’m proud of the way they competed and their leadership. They were never in danger of losing today. They were on their game.”

Four other Golden Hawks advanced as runners-up including senior Mason Hartley at 145 via a wrestleback win over Walker Lawrence of Mount Vernon by a 7-6 score. Sophomore Cael Garvey won a wrestleback by pin over Collin Hoskins of Center Point-Urbana. Ben Meader got through a three man bracket as runner-up at 170 and Cory Allen punched his ticket with a runner-up finish at 182.