Prairie Boys Cross Country Team Captures State Title

On October 30, the Prairie Boys Cross Country team completed a very successful season with a State 4A championship!  The season s began with a preseason of ranking of #1 in class 4A which they maintained throughout the entire year.  Along the way, they won team championships at the Prairie Invitational, Cedar Rapids Invitational, Heartland Classic, Linn Mar Invitational, Bobcat Challenge, MVC Super Meet, MVC Valley Divisional Meet, District Meet and concluded their top billing at by winning state which was held in Fort Dodge.

The Prairie Hawk boys took full advantage of sunny skies and a temperature around 50° by having seven runners reach their personal bests in the 5K. “It has been a pleasure to work with such great athletes and competitors this season and thru the course of their careers,” said Cross Country Coach Bill Schwarz.  “They don’t shy away from long hours and hard work.  They set very high goals for themselves and did everything in their power to accomplish them.”

The team was led by Matt Stocker, who finished 6th overall in a time of 15:36 which was a new school record.  He was followed closely by his twin brother Kyle who also ran faster than the previous school record, finishing in 15:40 and 8th overall.  Another pair of twins, brother Burns, followed with times of 16:04 for Jordan and 16:05 for Justin.  Jacob Aune completed the scoring for the Prairie Hawks with a time of 16:09.  The team average of 15:55 is only the second sub-16:00 ever run at the present state meet location.  The strength of this team has been the depth of great runners and it was the case again at State.  Scott Titler finished in 16:13, ahead of scoring athletes from all other teams, and Isaiah Vlasek ran to a 16:35 – the top freshman in the race.

A school assembly will be held at Thursday, November 4 at 10:30 am in the south gym at Prairie High School.