Middle schoolers run at state

ANKENY — The 2023 Iowa middle school state cross-country meet was this Saturday, and a few area runners made big waves. The meet, which featured seventh and eighth-graders, gave cross-country fans a peak into the future of the high school ranks.

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ team came into the day with big expectations, and the Panthers showed out with a third-place finish in the eighth-grade meet.

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The Panthers went up with a team that did include two seventh-graders, along with three eighth-graders. Mt. Pleasant finished third place overall, scoring 40 points. That was just six away from second-place Pella.

Leading the Panthers was one of those two seventh-graders, Avery Fedler. Fedler finished the race in 11 minutes, 55.8 seconds, which won the race by over 30 seconds.

Fedler’s time was one of only three finishes under 12 minutes for any girl running in any of the four classes. She was the second-fastest runner of any girl competing.

Mt. Pleasant put all five runners in the Top-26 in the eighth-grade race. Josie Dykstra was 15th. Quintrie Lee took 17th. Bella Dodds was 22nd, and Elodie Rawson took 26th.

Washington had two runners competing on the boys’ side. The Demons brought one runner for the seventh grade boys’ race, and one for the eighth-grade race.

Seventh-grader Jack Shepherd took seventh place overall at the meet. He crossed the tape in 12:07.2.

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In the eighth-grade race, Parker Tschantz crossed in 15th. Tschantz had a final time of 11:57.3.

Both the Mt. Pleasant girls and Washington boys were coming off conference championships on Thursday in Fort Madison.

In Classes 1A and 2A, both the seventh and eighth-graders ran together for their respective genders.

In Class 2A, the Mid-Prairie girls finished seventh place overall, scoring 119 points, which was just four out of the Top-5.

The Golden Hawks put two eighth-graders in the Top-5. Rachel Hostetler took fourth overall, with a time of 12:43.0, and Tessa Brokaw was right behind her, with a fifth-place time of 12:48.1.

Mid-Prairie also competed in the boys’ event, taking 16th.

The Pekin Panthers showed out in the Class 1A girls’ meet. Pekin finished fourth place overall, scoring 69 points.

Pekin showed it had a lot of depth coming up on the girls’ side. Seventh-grader Mya Glick was the top runner, taking 32nd. Seventh-grader Ashlynn Adrian was 34th, and eighth-grader Harper Guise finished 43rd.

Pekin and Columbus went 13th and 14th respectively in the Class 1A boys’ race. The Panthers scored 206 points, and the Wildcats were just one point behind, with 207.

Pekin had one runner in the Top-15. Eighth-grader Sam Hall finished in 14th, crossing in 12:12.1.

The top Union area runner among Class 1A girls was WACO’s Macie Carter. Carter, a seventh-grader, finished 11th overall, with a time of 13:06.0.

WACO did not have enough girls to score as a team.