Mid-Prairie sweeps team and individual titles

WILLIAMSBURG — Three teams came in ranked in each varsity race, in what was the opening event for many teams at the Williamsburg Rec Center Tuesday night.

Mid-Prairie had a clean sweep of the team and individual titles. It’s girls team came in ranked ninth in Class 2A, and the boys were ranked third.

Emmett Swartzentruber is the returning 2A state champion from last season and was the lone runner to break 17 minutes on the night.

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WILLIAMSBURG

Channing Becker continued the strong start to her freshman season with a second-place finish, breaking up the Mid-Prairie top three.

The 16th ranked Class 3A Raiders finished second behind Mid-Prairie. Edie Axmear finished in the Top 10 individually.

“We were a lot better this year than we were last year at this meet, so we’re in a good place,” Williamsburg head coach Nick Nordheim said.

“There’s things we do in practice that show we’re ready to do more than we have so far, but we are a young team.”

On the boys side, Colin Reed led the charge again, coming in ninth in 17:52. Improving from last week, Nile Busch came in 18th in 18:16.

“He’s coming on, he’s been dealing with a little bit of a hip issue but he’ll be fine,” Nordheim said. “He’ll be there when it counts.”

Busch ran as fast as 17:15 last season.

BELLE PLAINE

The Plainsmen came into the race without their top runner, Luke Eichhorn, who is dealing with an injury.

“We’re hopeful to have him back by mid September,” Belle Plaine head coach Matthew Mengler said.

Maddox Purk was the top finisher for Belle Plaine on the boys side, finishing 61st.

“It was good to get out on a nice day and compete. For some of these kids it was their first cross-country race ever, Mengler said. ”Now we know what to build on and where we stand.“

HLV

The HLV boys return this season as the defending conference champs.

Peyton Roth finished in 31st in 19:16 to lead the way in Williamsburg.

“We got a couple people coming back from last year, and they’ve been running good so far in practice and pushing the guys that are new,” HLV head coach Chase Sternhagen said.

“It was a good first meet, they gave a good effort.”

IOWA VALLEY

Jeffrey Crawford had a strong showing in his first-ever cross-country race and was the top finisher of the 1A schools that competed.

Crawford finished 29th with a time of 19:03.

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“He did a great job in his first race,” Iowa Valley head coach Tiffany Theissen said.

Crawford was one of two boys for the Tigers that ran in the varsity race while the rest ran in the junior varsity race.

“I didn’t run my freshman and sophomores in the varsity race with the bigger schools here. It’s not good in their first race to do that,” Theissen said.

MONTEZUMA

The Braves yielded full scoring teams on the boys and girls side in their season opener.

Ellen Cook was the top girls finisher at 29th, and Dayton Reif was the boys top finisher at 62nd.

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“I was really happy with how they ran, this has never been our easiest course and with it being the first meet of the year you’re still figuring out how to pace and those sorts of things,” Montezuma head coach Kevin Gartman said.

“On the boys side for our returners, we saw a minute or more faster than last year, which is good growth.”

A few runners on the girls side did not run due to injury, Gartman said.

OTHER NOTABLE PERFORMANCES

Harper Winegarden and Marcus Pirkl, of Williamsburg, won the junior high races in fast times — 9:01 and 8:06 in a 1.5-mile race.

Charlie Koons took home the boys junior varsity individual title for the Raiders.

Varsity Girls

TEAM RESULTS

1. Mid-Prairie 32, 2. Williamsburg 54, PCM Monroe 71, 4. Oskaloosa 103, 5. Davis County Bloomfield 164, 6. Newton 171, 7. Grinnell 192, 8. Benton 193, 9. Mediapolis 227, 10. Montezuma 263, 11. Waterloo Christian 321

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Top 10: 1. Brooklyn Stutzman (Mid-Prairie), 19:52.9; 2. Channing Becker (Williamsburg), 20:12.3; 3. Rachel Hostetler (Mid-Prairie), 20:23.9; 4. Kendal Landstrum (Mid-Prairie), 20:36.5; 5. Kyliee Zylstra (Grinnell), 20:58.2; 6. Tierney Carter (Oskaloosa), 7. Abi Teeter (PCM Monroe), 21:24.3; 8. Lila Milani (PCM Monroe), 21:25.7; 9. Edie Axmear (Williamsburg), 21:36.6; 10. Audrey Muckler (Newton), 21:40.9

Williamsburg (54): 2. Channing Becker, 20:12.3; 9. Edie Axmear, 21:36.6; 12. Lilyona Abernathy, 22:14.6; 15. MaKenna Capper, 22:42.6; 16. Maelyn Parsons, 22:52.5; 23. Leighton Maas, 23:27.5

Montezuma (263): 29. Ellen Cook, 23:48.3; 49. Alexa Rose, 25:40.9; 51. Claire Erselius, 25:45.5; 65. Sophia Semprini, 28:08.4; 69. Haileah Eichenberger, 29:44.3

HLV: 70. Paisley Allee, 29:44.5; 72. Raelene Hawkins, 30:46.6

Belle Plaine: 71. Elle Jacobi, 30:13.3; 74. Aurora Hemmingsen-Brinkman, 31:45.1

Iowa Valley: 73. Hannah Smolik, 31:36.1

Varsity Boys

TEAM RESULTS

1. Mid-Prairie 38, 2. Grinnell 65, 3. Williamsburg 99, 4. Newton 120, 5. Mediapolis 139, 6. PCM Monroe 144, 7. Oskaloosa 157, 8. Benton 214, 9. Davis County Bloomfield 234, 10. HLV 297, 11. Montezuma 327, 12. Waterloo Christian 342, 13. Belle Plaine 380

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Top 10: Emmett Swartzentruber (Mid-Prairie), 16:56.2; 2. Will Schmidgall (Mediapolis), 17:00.9; 3. Preston Yutzt (Mid-Prairie), 17:10.3; 4. Barrett Jesina (South Tama), 17:11.4; 5. Cadel Conner (Grinnell), 17:17.6; 6. Simon Wendel (Mediapolis), 17:23.5; 7. Jayce Yoder (Mid-Prairie), 17:24.0; 8. Colin Reed (Williamsburg), 17:52.9; 9. Aden Wolfe (Grinnell), 17:22.9; 10. Maxon Swartzentruber (Mid-Prairie), 17:55.4

Williamsburg (99): 8. Colin Reed, 17:52.9; 16. Nile Busch, 18:16.8; 19. Hayes Arwine, 18:28.0; 25. Finn Brummell, 18:54.9; 39. Hudson Nunnelley, 19:33.9; 44. Tyler McMullin, 19:46.9; 48. Brevin Zirkel, 20:11.0

HLV (297): 31. Peyton Roth, 19:16.2; 65. Drew Thys, 21:33.5; 66. Cael Weisskopf, 21:34.3; 74. Wesley Davis, 22:03.7; 84. Lance Milton, 23:54.9; 91. Connor Rhinehart, 28:28.6

Montezuma (327): 61. Dayton Reif, 21:24.3; 68. Cael Cheney, 21:42.1; 71. Cade Lowry, 21:57.2; 72. Jusiah Wetering, 21:59.4; 79. Bryson Stockman, 22:39.7; 80. Linkyn Bru, 23:03.7

Belle Plaine (380): 61. Maddox Purk, 21:20.4; 82. Devin Timm, 23:13.9; 87, Caleb Argo, 25:48.7; 88. Hunter Henry, 25:53.0; 90. Ian Davis, 26:42.9; 92. Sawyer Neuhaus, 29:37.6

Iowa Valley: 29. Jeffrey Crawford, 19:03.0; 86. Ayden Hollister, 24:45.9