Hostetler, girls win at IMS Inviatational

An approaching storm changed the time of Monday's Iowa Mennonite School Invitational.

The time change threw off the process of the cross-country runners, but not enough to change the expected results.

Marie Hostetler, ranked No. 1 in Class 2A, dominated the girls race, winning by over 1 minute, 30 seconds on second-place Ashley Bloomquist of Fairfield.

'It was a very rushed meet, so I did not have very much time to warm up, which was a little stressful,” Hostetler said. 'It made me worried about how hard to start my race, but it ended up being OK.”

Hostetler's win also helped her team take first place, which was notable because Williamsburg finished second. Class 3A's eighth-ranked Solon finished third. Class 2A's No. 13 Danville-New London was fifth.'That was our main goal, was to beat Williamsburg. I'm glad we ran good.”

Mid-Prairie had been first in the team rankings until last week when it slipped to fourth. Williamsburg is ranked second.

'I don't think about my ranking too much,” Hostetler said. 'I would rather think about the team and use it for motivation.”

Although she won easily, Hostetler was not satisfied.

'I haven't had a good race time yet,” Hostetler said. 'It is really disappointing, but hopefully my time will drop eventually. It'd be nice to run a good time to give me confidence.”

Washington's girls finished eighth, led by Kelsey Pacha, who was 44th out of 162 girls in the race.

Keota placed 13th, led by Paige Thompson in 32nd.

Caleb Alcorn of Clear Creek-Amana won the boys race in 17:34. Washington's Evan Horak was just 10 seconds behind in second place. Mid-Prairie's Quinn Schmidt was another 12 seconds back in third out of 178 runners.

No. 11 Williamsburg won the boys team title and Mid-Prairie was third. Washington was seventh.

'This was a huge step forward for the boys team,” Mid-Prairie coach Mark Hostetler said. 'We lost to Williamsburg by 64 points two weeks ago, and finished tonight only 12 points behind them. Williamsburg is likely a team we'll need to beat to make it to state, and there were just a few seconds separating many of our runners. Senior Quinn Schmidt had a season-best third-place finish and beat Williamsburg's top runner by 26 seconds. Quinn is starting to shine in his role as team leader at just the right time as the boys look towards trying to qualify for state in two weeks.”

The IMS boys finished ninth and the girls finished 12th. Leah Bontrager was 28th and Brian Nchoe was 17th.

'We did well, although an individual on each of our teams had an off day,” IMS coach Martin gingerich said. 'Other than that, everyone ran real well. This is a tougher course than we have run recently. The softness of the ground absorbs the energy. If we just ran circles on the track, the kids' times would be faster, but they would be mad at me if we had them do that.”

GIRLS

Team results -- 1. Mid-Prairie 42, 2. Williamsburg 58, 3. Solon 64, 4. Mt. Pleasant 106, 5. Danville-New London 143, 6. Clear Creek-Amana 190, 7. Fairfield 211, 8. Washington 265, 9. Englich Valleys 288, 10. Belle Plaine 300, 11. Lynville-Sully 306, 12. IMS 311, 13. Keota 357, 14. BGM 385, 15. Montezuma 420, 16. Sigourney 424

Individuals

Mid-Prairie -- 1. Marie Hostetler 18:32, 7. Mitzi Evans 20:51, 9. Ana Fleming 21:14, 11. Moriah Brase 21:19, 14. Kate Cavanaugh 21:34

Washington -- 44. Kelsey Pacha 23:58, 47. Abby Voss 24:15, 49. Molly Sparks 24:21, 56. Josie Tanner 24:58, 69. Victoria Hinson 25:53

IMS -- 28. Leah Bontrager 22:29, 37. Sarena Gerber 23:26, 70. Ester hughes 25:56, 86. Julia Boller 28:26, 90. Rachel Geyer 29:33

Keota -- 32. Paige Thompson 22:53, 65. Frankie johnson 25:37, 77. Jenna Jaeger 26:49, 87. Bailey Sieren 28:55, 96. Nikki Steege 32:05

WACO -- 148. Makenzie Shelman 31:03, 153. Jackayla Vradenburg 32:14, 157. Caitlyn Sells 32:33

BOYS

Team results -- 1. Williamsburg 74, 2. Fairfield 79, 3. Mid-Prairie 86, 4. Clear Creek-Amana 97, 5. Danville-New London 115, 6. Solon 118, 7. Washington 180, 8. Mt. Pleasant 188, 9. IMS 267, 10. Sigourney 291, 11. North Mahaska 319

Individuals

Mid-Prairie -- 3. Quinn Schmidt 17:56, 16. Thaddeus Shetler 18:51, 21. Spencer Yutzy 19:08, 22. Samson Kimani 19:08, 24. Jamison Stutzman 19:12

Washington -- 2. Evan Horak 17:44, 15. Lance Sobaski 18:51, 49. Matthew Collett 20:03, 56. Quinn Wubbena 20:47, 58. Ben Schiefer 20:58

IMS -- 17. Brian Nchoe 18:53, 55. Jacob Boller 20:44, 59. John Hughes 21:01, 66. Aaron Hersherberger 22:29, 70. Collin Miller 24:44

Keota -- 77. Jayden Lawson 20:58

WACO -- 68. Jonah Egli 20:27, 97. Larz Smith 21:42, 142. Taylor Sutton 24:08, 166. Tim Ackles 26:54