Photos Courtesy of Mark Hostetler
Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk cross country took the crowns at the River Valley Conference Championship meet Tuesday night at the Iowa City Kickers complex.
The No. 9 in Class 2A Golden Hawk girls completed their three-peat of RVC titles with a score of 45 points, beating second place Tipton’s 74. The Hawks were led by Brooklyn Stutzman in third at 19:43. Winner was Izzy Hardin of Maquoketa in 17:58. Other Golden Hawks included Tessa Brokaw 10th, Rachel Hostetler 14th, Rebekah Wallington 16th, Hannah Rodgers 18th, Kyrie Poll 21st, Nikkari Poll 34th, Ella Chiang 48th, Averi Janecek 61st, Leah Kelley 62nd, Alaina Safly 82nd, Samantha Wunderlich 106th, Gwen Wunderlich 115th and Skyler Swift 116th. The happy Hawks spoke after the meet about how it felt to get the win. “It’s really great after the rough season we have had with injuries and illness. (Our depth) has been really great. When someone has gotten injured or sick, there was always someone to step up and fill in. People really worked hard and you see that work pay off with our depth. We wouldn’t say that we expected to win it. We wanted to go into this race really mentally tough and have no regrets. It’s kind of grasping every moment together.”
On the boys side, the Golden Hawks head the individual winner as junior Max Swartzentruber stormed to the conference championship in a time of 17:03, eight seconds faster than Andrew Schlarmann of Dyersville-Beckman. Swartzentruber spoke with KCII Sports about the win. “It was about a mile and a half in and I was in third place when I realized I had a shot to win. I knew I was pushing myself a lot. I was on track to run a big PR. I had it in the back of my mind that I had a shot to win. I came out of the prairie with 1200 to go and coach was there and I had family there cheering me on. That motivated me a lot. I was able to get into second with about 800 meters to go and once we got to the two mini hills on the course I just gave it everything I had after that. That was where I took first. I didn’t know if someone was going to pass me in the chute or if someone was right behind me. I just looked forward and gave it everything I had. I got the finish chute. I was able to kick. It was a fun finish!”
Mid-Prairie’s team score was 154 to finish eighth of 13 teams. Beckman was the winner with 70. Other Golden Hawk runners included Luke Brokaw 25th, Jesse Stultz 26th, Reece Waters 44th, Jonathon Pickard 70th, Ben Lothamer 79th, Archie Damschen 83rd, Tyson Huber 86th, Carl Gustafson 90th, Cayce Damschen 94th, Landon Hough 107th, Oliver Feltes 125th, Andrew Adam 134th, and Damian Garcia 146th.