The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk boys and girls cross country teams have a chance to qualify for state in Fort Dodge today when they make the trip to Williamsburg for their class 2A state qualifier meet. The Mid-Prairie girls enter action fresh off of a River Valley Conference team championship last week in Monticello. The Hawks are ranked No. 1 in this week’s class 2A poll from the Iowa High School Track and Field Coaches Association. In the individual 2A rankings, Mid-Prairie has six ranked runners led by a 1-2-3 punch at the top of the poll with Danielle Hostetler No. 1, Sydney Yoder No. 2, and Jaden Yoder No. 3. Other ranked runners include Mitzi Evans No. 9, Abby Fleming No. 27 and Ana Fleming No. 30.

The Mid-Prairie boys are in action again off of a third place finish at the River Valley Championships last week. The Golden Hawk boys are No. 6 in this week’s team class 2A poll from the IATC. The Hawks have two runners ranked in the individual poll with Jamison Stutzman No. 8 and Nathan Wallington No. 26. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Mark Hostetler previewed the meet. “The Williamsburg girls are ranked second, right behind us. We have six girls in the top 10 in our district field, fortunately three of them are from Mid-Prairie with Danielle Hostetler, Sydney Yoder and Jaden Yoder. Parrott from Danville and Ruth Jennings from Williamsburg will be tough. It will be tough individually and tough team-wise but I think if we run to our capability we will come out on top. The course is fairly flat and fast. There are some sharp turns. The conditions will be unusual, warm weather, the forecast is calling for winds out of the south at more than 20 miles per hour, so that will affect times. There’s also rain expected that day, which could cause some wet and slippery conditions on the course.”

Joining the Golden Hawks at the meet will be Camanche, Cardinal, Central Lee, the No. 1 Danville/New London boys and the No. 15 Danville/New London girls, Eddyville-Blakesburg, Louisa-Muscatine, Prairie City Monroe, Pella Christian, Springville, West Liberty, West Marshall, the No. 8 Williamsburg boys and No. 2 Williamsburg girls, and Wilton. There are a total of 11 ranked runners in the girls race and nine ranked runners on the boys side. Action gets underway at 4p.m. this afternoon and continues into the evening at the Williamsburg Rec Center.