Mid-Prairie, Columbus well represented in Class 2A meet

A pair of area schools went to Eddyville-Blakesburg for their state-qualifying track meet last Thursday, and came away with numerous representatives who will run at the Blue Oval this weekend.

Mid-Prairie put together an area-high 14 event qualifications on the day, while Columbus had five events qualify.

The Golden Hawk boys claimed two individual titles on the day, with Levi Duwa sweeping the shot put and discus competitions, qualifying for state with the automatic berth.

Other automatic berths for the boys? team came from Luke Sigler in the 1600-meter run and a second-place finish from the 4x800-meter relay team of Sigler, Andrew Schwartz, Brent Foster and Peyton Miller.

Earning at-large bids to the state meet were Schwartz in the 800 and Floyd Evans in the 3200-meter run, while the distance medley team of Quinn Schmidt, Keaton Duwa, Cary Schaefer and Miller also advanced.

On the girls? side of the meet, Anna Hostetler claimed four state qualifications, combined with three district titles.

Hostetler won the 1500-meter run (where she is the top-seeded runner in Class 2A) and the 3000-meter run (where she is ranked second).

She also helped the distance medley team of Alex Rath, Emily Cayton and Greta Schmidt win a district title.

Hostetler also qualified for the state meet by time in the 800-meter run, which she placed third in at the district race.

Rath also claimed a spot in the state meet as an individual in the 200-meter dash, as well as helping the 4x100-meter team of Ali Butters, Abby Tornow and Cayton to a district title in the event.

Joining them are Tornow, Schmidt, Hannah VanRoekel and Maddi Zahradnek, who took third in the 4x800-meter relay, but qualified on time.

For Columbus, the Wildcats had their strong sprint team of Ruben Paz, Devon Henry, Abel Mena and Mauricio Ramirez look good on Thursday, en route to claiming state berths in the 4x100- and 4x200-meter relay.

Ramirez also claimed a spot in the 100-meter dash field for Thursday.

On the girls? side of the meet, Shania Boyd qualified for state in the 400-meter hurdles, while being a part of the shuttle hurdle relay team of Monaye Matthews, Anna Hamilton and Angie Byas.