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Area runners off to state
Mid-Prairie, Pekin highlight small school cross-country qualifiers
Thursday evening brought one of the most anticipated days in the entire cross-country schedule, as Class 1A and 2A teams competed at state qualifiers around the state.
As usual, the area had plenty of names on the qualification list, and four teams will be making the trip. Mid-Prairie sent both the boys’ and the girls’ teams. Pekin did the same, getting both squads to Fort Dodge.
In the Class 2A meet at Williamsburg, the Mid-Prairie girls continued to push runners to the front of the pack, just as they have done all year. The Golden Hawks won the qualifier with 29 points, beating second-place Van Meter by 14.
Three-time defending Class 2A champion Danielle Hostetler officially punched her ticket back to the state meet. Hostetler won the race in 19 minutes, 9.7 seconds, assuring her chance at becoming only the second girl ever to win four-straight state titles.
The Golden Hawk girls had three runners in the Top-5. Brooklyn Stutzman finished fourth, in 20:20.7, and Greta Sieren was fifth, in 20:28.5.
Kendal Landstrum finished 10th overall. Abby Fleming and Phoebe Shetler went 13th and 14th, and Annika Poll took 18th.
The Golden Hawk boys qualified by eight points, grabbing the third and final spot with a final score of 74. Williamsburg scored 82 for fourth, putting the Raiders one spot out of a team ticket.
Mid-Prairie’s Emmett Swartzentruber won the boys’ meet individually. Swartzentruber finished the race in 16:12.1. Preston Yutzy also finished in the Top-10, crossing seventh, in 17:20.7.
Maxon Swartzentruber was the third Golden Hawk across, finishing 19th. Jayse Yoder was right behind him, in 20th. Jesse Stultz finished 27th. Daniel Rodgers was 29th, and Jacob Donaldson finished 32nd.
The Pekin boys flexed their muscles at the Class 1A qualifier at South Hardin. The Panthers scored 47 points, beating second-place St. Edmond by a full 40 points.
Brady McWhirter brought home an individual victory for the Panthers. McWhirter won the race in 17:30.3.
Pekin had four runners in the Top-123. Along with McWhirter, Mason Dahlstrom took eighth, in 18:51.4. Jaedon Wolver was 10th, in 19:17.6, and Lane Fariss finished 12th, in 19:27.1.
Cole Millikin was 16th. Ben Guise finished 36th, and Dylan Sobaski crossed the tape in 60th.
The Panther girls were nipped for first by one point, scoring 37 points to St. Edmond’s 36, but the Panthers easily locked up one of Two Class 1A team tickets.
Chloe Glosser paced the Panther girls, finishing second place, in 20:33.8. Lauren Steigleder wasn’t far behind, taking fourth, in 21:51.3, and Audrey Fariss was 10th, in 22:50.4.
Abby Guise finished 18th for the Panthers. Breanna Drish was 21st. Lexi Swearingen took 24th, and Cambree Earnest finished 31st.
The qualification for the Pekin girls marked the 20th-straight year the team has gone to state, doing so in Coach Davis Eidahl’s 60th year coaching.
Regina hosted a Class 1A state qualifier in Regina, and although the Union area didn’t get any teams through, a handful of runners punched their tickets individually.
Van Buren County’s Lincoln Bainbridge cruised to victory in the meet. Bainbridge earned his state ticket with a final time of 16:52.7. He was the only runner to finish in under 17 minutes, winning the meet by 19 seconds.
Winfield-Mount Union’s Kohlby Newsom finished in the Top-3, earning himself another Fort Dodge trip. Newsom crossed the tape in 17:30.3.
Columbus’ Damian Vergara snuck into the Top-10 with an eighth-place finish. Vergara finished in 18:03, grabbing a spot at the state meet by just three seconds.
The fantastic freshman season of Hillcrest Academy’s Marie Yoder continued in spades, as she won her first ever state qualifier. Yoder finished the race in 20:30.9, to win by over 32 seconds.
The Top-3 runners on the girls’ side were freshmen, and that included Columbus’ Iris Garza. Garza finished the race in 21:12 to lock up her spot in Fort Dodge.
