Union area state cross-country participants

FORT DODGE — The 2021 Iowa high school state cross-country meet will be a two-day event, Friday and Saturday at Lakeside Golf Course.

Washington’s Lance Sobaski could contend in the Class 3A boys race. Marion teammates Shane Erb and Jedidiah Osgood ran 1-2 at districts ahead of Sobaski but lost to him a week earlier. Aidan Ramsey of Dallas Center-Grimes and Eli Larson of Center Point-Urbana were third and fourth last year and are mostly likely to be at the very front of the pack.

With the top four girls (and six of the top seven) returning from last year’s team that won by 62 points, Mid-Prairie is heavily favored to make it five 2A state titles in a row. If it happens, the Golden Hawks will join Iowa City High (1989-93) and West Des Moines Dowling (2007-11) as five-time winners. The Golden Hawks went 1-2-3-4-8 at Williamsburg. Denver could challenge.

Mid-Prairie sophomore Danielle Hostetler is chasing her second consecutive title, and the sixth in a row for her family — Anna Hostetler was the champion in 2016, then Marie won three straight (2017-19) — and built a 60-second margin at the Williamsburg regional, winning in 18:49. But Ellie Rathe of Union Community is a legitimate challenger, running 19:01 at Anamosa and winning by 1:13. Katelyn Johnston of Osage also ran a sub-19 regional race, at Dike.

Ty Carr of Danville/New London was the runner-up last year and pulled away toward the end of the race to win the individual title at the Anamosa district. A lengthy list of contenders includes his own teammate, Alexander Julian, third last year, and Mid-Prairie’s Thaddeus Shetler. D/NL and Tipton ran 1-2 at state last year and renewed acquaintances at the Anamosa district, with Tipton prevailing by a score of 33 points to 44. That puts the favorite’s tag in Tipton’s pocket by a narrow margin. Williamsburg edged Mid-Prairie by a 64-66 verdict at the Williamsburg district, and they’ll probably be racing for third Saturday.

Union area cross-country teams at state

(finished in top 3 at district meet)

Mid-Prairie girls

Pekin girls

Mid-Prairie boys

Columbus boys

Danville/New London boys

Cross-country individuals who qualified for state

(finished in top 15 at Class 2A or 3A district meet, top 10 at 1A)

Class 3A

Lance Sobaski, Washington

Micah Rees, Washington

Gavin Van Veen, Fairfield

Class 2A

Danielle Hostetler, Mid-Prairie

Sydney Yoder, Mid-Prairie

Jaden Yoder, Mid-Prairie

Mitzi Evans, Mid-Prairie

Phoebe Shetler, Mid-Prairie

Abby Fleming, Mid-Prairie

Gavin Grove, Cardinal

Thaddeus Shetler, Mid-Prairie

Chandler Herschberger, Mid-Prairie

Emmet Swartzentruber, Mid-Prairie

Ty Carr, Danville/New London

Alexander Julian, Danville/New London

Rylan Martin, Danville/New London

Seth Bailey, Danville/New London

Class 1A

Freddy Vergara, Columbus

Isaac Acosta, Columbus

Gabe Hemsworth, Winfield-Mount Union

Leah Bontrager, Hillcrest Academy

Zach Wise, Pekin

Lauren Derscheid, Pekin

Lauren Steigleder, Pekin

Payten Poling, Van Buren County

Faith Neely, Van Buren County