Iowa 2A girls’ state track and field: Mid-Prairie edges A-P in distance medley

DES MOINES - For the second day in a row, Mid-Prairie's Marie Hostetler defended a title at the state track and field meet.

The junior won the distance medley relay along with Abbagail Evans, Cassidy Rourke and Amber Swart at Drake Stadium. Hostetler ran the 800-meter anchor leg in 2:19.4.

Mid-Prairie won with a time of 4:08.74, edging out Aplington-Parkersburg by 0.02 seconds.

Hostetler was about 10 meters behind A-P anchor Sophia Jungling with 200 meters left.

'I was just focusing on every step and keeping myself moving,” Hostetler said.

She started her kick and, with about 70 meters left, Hostetler and Jungling were neck and neck, each trying to out-kick the other.

'I didn't think I'd be as close as I was with her with the last 100 meters to go,” Hostetler said. 'But I realized I had more in me and when I came up beside her, I just realized I had to dig deep and I knew I had to get ahead of her.”

Fouls littered the discus field and throwers struggled to throw in the driving rain. Tipton's Jamie Kofron only had two, but she still found herself in second place going into her last throw. On her final heave, she did what she does best - came through in the clutch.

Her final attempt went 140 feet, 5 inches, improving on her previous best Friday by 11 feet. Kofron, who finished second in the shot put Thursday, came back to defend her discus title. She beat South Hardin's Brylie Zeisneiss, whose best throw was 130 feet, 6 inches.

Mid-Prairie scored five more team points in the girls' 800-meter relay by finishing fourth. Swart, Mitzi Evans, Maddie Edgington and Evans finished in 1:48.32. The winning time of 1:46.98 came from Treynor.

Panorama leads the team race after day two with 27 points, Mid-Prairie is in second with 25, Aplington-Parkersburg is in third with 21 and Tipton and South Hardin are tied for fourth with 18.

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