Mid-Praire races at Central College

PELLA - At the 15th Heartland Classic Saturday, 20 schools' teams were divided into two sections.

Mid-Prairie ran against the larger school class that had Johnston, Ballard, Waukee, Cedar Rapids Prairie among the 10 teams. Lincoln from South Dakota won the girls White Division with 47 points. Mid-Prairie had 163. West Des Moines Dowling won the boys with 67 points and Mid-Prairie had 270 for 10th.

Paiton Noe of Ballard won the girls race with a time of 18 minutes, 13 seconds. Sydney Yoder of Mid-Prairie was 16th at 19:58. Nate Mueller of ADM won in 15:34 and Thaddeus Shelter was Mid-Prairie's top finisher at 36th.

There were a lot of positives for the Golden Hawks, who ran the same course two weeks ago, in a race stacked with Class 3A and 4A powerhouses. Mid-Prairie worked on tactical improvements in this race, but seemed to struggle to move up in the second mile.

'That will be an area for us to improve. We saw across-the-board improvements for the girls with Sydney and Jaden Yoder each improving by a very respectable 26 seconds,” Hawks assistant coach Aaron Fleming said. 'Nathan Wallington had a 13-second bump and his continued improvement will be a key to the team's success as the season goes along.”

Danielle Hostetler did not run for a minor health concerns.

The Golden Hawks next meet is Monday, Sept 28, at Kicker's Soccer Park in Iowa City.

Mid-Prairie Finishes

7. Girls - 16. Sydney Yoder 19:58.5, 19. Jaden Yoder 20:01.3, 33. Mitzi Evans 20:38.6, 46. Abby Fleming 21:18.3, 49. Phoebe Shetler 21:24.8, 61. Amara Jones22:24.5, 62. Ana Fleming 22:33.2

10. Boys - 36. Thaddeus Shetler 17:07.4, 40. Jamison Stutzman 17:09.7, 57. Chandler Hershberger 17:39.1, 67. Nathan Wallington 18:09.0, 70. Lucas Bontrager 18:34.0, 79. Mose Yoder 19:07.3, 84. Daniel Rodgers 20:06.7

Panthers outpace all

Pekin's boys and girls teams each won Thursday at Lynnville-Sully with the top Panther taking second in each race.

Pekin had 46 points to Pella Christian's 72 in the 10 teams of boys. Brady Millikin finished in 17:03 but Southeast Warren's Randy Jimenez ran 16 flat.

Zack Wise was fourth for the Panthers in 17:41, Isaac Gentry ninth in 18:33, Jaedon Wolver 17th at 19:25, Ben Guise 21st 19:48,

Of the seven girls teams, Montezuma was second with 66 points to Pekin's 28 as Lily Fariss had a time of 21:17. That was second behind Montezuma's Rylee Dunkin 21:12.

Pekin Finishes

1. Girls - 2. Lily Fariss 21:17, 6. Lauren Steigleder, 21:58, 7. Lauren Dershied 22:00, 9. Audrey Fariss 22:32, 12. Sarah Eubanks 22:57, 14. Lilly Reneker 23:22, 19. Sabrina Reneker 23:51.

1. Boys - 2. Brady Millikin 17:03, 4. Zack Wise 17:41, 9. Isaac Gentry 18:33, 17. Jaedon Wolver 19:25, 21. Ben Guise 19:48, 35. Michael Emeheiser 20:58