Hostetler sets school record

ANAMOSA - Mid-Prairie swept the team races at the cross-country meet in Anamosa Saturday and saw a freshman set a team record at a school known for its distance running.

Danielle Hostetler, whose winning time of 17 minutes, 36 seconds is a new school record, was one of three freshmen girls running for the Golden Hawks against several ranked teams, including No. 2 Williamsburg (Class 2A) and No. 6 Solon (Class 3A). Williamsburg's squad featured four runners ranked in the top 20 of the preseason poll. Danielle is Ana and Marie Hostetler's younger sister.

Mid-Prairie ran away with the team win by 37 points while the boys took a team title for the first time since 2017 on the strength of some big improvements over last year. The boys race featured Class 4A Muscatine and a Clear Creek-Amana team that began the season ranked No. 3 in Class 3A in the preseason poll.

Chandler Hershberger (second at 16:53), Thaddeus Shetler (third in 16:54) and Jamison Stutzman (fourth in 16:58) all finished in under 17 minutes, only the second time in program history that happened and the only other time occurred in a state meet. Senior Lucas Bontrager had a personal record and a great time at 17:22 and Nathan Wallington rounded out the team scoring in 18:20.

All three junior girls ran well, especially Jaden Yoder, whose time of 19:33 was good for second place and was the fastest time ever at Mid-Prairie by a runner who is not one of the Hostetler sisters. Her twin sister, Sydney, was just 12 seconds behind for fourth in a personal record time as she ran under 20:00 for a 46-second PR. Mitzi Evans was seventh in 20:30. Freshman Abby Fleming (21:10) was the team's fifth scorer as she came in right ahead of Williamsburg's main pack.

TEAM SCORES GIRLS

1. Mid-Prairie 22, 2. Williamsburg 59, 3. Solon 63, 4. Clear Creek Amana 128, 5. Muscatine 131, 6. Fort Madison 164, Anamosa 178

BOYS

1. Mid-Prairie 43, 2. Muscatine 58, 3. Solon 62, 4. Clear Creek Amana 71, 5. Williamsburg 125, 6. Fort Madison 136, 7. Anamosa 181