At the end of the night at Ike Ryan Field at Eddyville-Blakesburg High School, long after the other track teams had boarded buses following the 2A state qualifier track meet, the Mid-Prairie boys and girls teams were the only ones left, still on the infield celebrating their accomplishments with family and friends. This scene was fitting. The Golden Hawks own dominance had left them competing on a level by themselves all night.
For the second consecutive year, both Golden Hawk teams captured meet titles. The Mid-Prairie girls did with an astonishing 183 points, lapping second place Davis County’s total of 112. The Hawks racked up an amazing 16 automatic state qualifying bids, 11 of those coming through event championships. Mitzi Evans was an unstoppable force, the senior went quadruple gold for the Hawks, winning the 200 in 26.62 seconds, the 400 in 58.97 seconds, was part of a 1-2 Mid-Prairie finish in the 800, winning with her time of 2:21.13 while sophomore Danielle Hostetler took second, and was part of the winning Golden Hawk sprint medley team with Madeline Schrader, Alyssa McDowell, and Ella Gronewold in 1:52.56. She talked amidst the post meet excitement about her night. Evans said, “It feels really good. I feel like I have kind of been thinking about this meet all year, because I know I’m going to be running a lot of races back-to-back. I’d say the 200 was best. I wasn’t expecting to have as much energy as I did so it went the best for me. I was really thankful that I was able to get to state in all my events and that they went smoothly.”
Along with the 1-2 punch of Evans and Hostetler in the 800, the Hawks used the same pair to accomplish the feat twice more on the night, in the 1500 Hostetler broke the tape in 4:54.36 and Sydney Yoder was second, in the 3000, the tandem finished in the same order with Hostetler in 11:19.17 and Yoder right behind. Schrader and Amara Jones each had a hand in four relays qualifying for state. The two were part of the champion 4×100 along with Alyssa McDowell and Tabitha Evans in 51.47 seconds, the 4×200 along with Ella Groenewold and Tabitha Evans in 1:49.06 and the winning distance medley with Hostetler and Tabitha Evans in 4:25.21. The Golden Hawk shuttle hurdle of Jones, Nora Pennington, Emily Schlabach and Behla Schmidt will be in Des Moines after their win in 1:12.58 and Emma Lueck cleared 15’10.25″ to win the long jump contest. Event runners-up that also qualified for state included Groenewold second in the high jump and Maddie Nonnenmann second in the discus.
In boys competition Mid-Prairie was the team champion with 124 points, edging Mediapolis’ 114 total in a tight race. The Golden Hawks auto-qualified a dozen events for state on Thursday, including a half dozen event champions. Jayden Stafford will compete at state in Des Moines in the wheelchair triple, finishing the 100 in 20.38 seconds, the 200 in 36.69 seconds and the 400 in 1:12.64. He talked with KCII sports on Thursday about the competition and his preparation. “I like the 100 the most and then the 200 after. I like the way that I don’t have to keep the stamina going for too long. It’s mostly technique and form for me. An everyday chair is what I would call it. It’s around 30lbs. The track chair I’m in is probably not even 15lbs. It’s a lot lighter. It’s made out of carbon fiber so it’s a lot nicer. This feels awesome. I’m doing this all as a freshman, so that’s a big plus in my book!”
Thaddeus Shetler went double gold, winning the mile in 4:40.13. He was part of a Golden Hawk 1-2 pucnh at the top of the two mile standings, winning the race in 10:54.50 while teammate Emmet Swartzendruber finished runner-up. Mid-Prairie junior Cain Brown returned to the scene where he tied the school’s high jump record a year ago and won the contest again, clearing 6’5″. Golden Hawk qualifiers as runners-up included Brown second in the 110 hurdles, the Mid-Prairie team of Will Cavanagh, Carter Harmsen, Tyler Helmuth and Kaden Meader second in the both the 4×100 and 4x200s, the sprint medley team of Helmuth, Jackson Gehman, Harmsen and Cavanagh second and the shuttle hurdle team of Justice Jones, Meader, Braden Hartley and Brown second.
Though the Mid-Prairie list of events that will be on the blue oval in Des Moines at this point is long, it could get even longer. Following all state qualifier meets, the state will look at times and distances and accept the next eight marks in each event outside of automatic qualifiers. KCII will have a full list of qualifiers when they become official and tune in to the KCII Radio Coaches Corner Saturday for comments from Mid-Prairie head girls coach Chris Tyler, head boys coach Dain Jeppson and Mid-Prairie athletes from Thursday’s meet.