PEKIN — Colfax-Mingo junior Dakota Hostetter proved why she is a rated runner to start the new cross country season Tuesday.
C-M coach Zach Tomas knew his top runner was capable of running the new 5K race in less than 20 minutes, but didn’t expect it to be the first meet of the season.
Yet Hostetter did just that as she raced a second-place individual finish with a time of 19 minutes, 57 seconds and helped the Tigerhawks place third as a team.
Host Pekin won the meet, and Colfax-Mingo trailed runner-up Albia by 29 points.
Freshman Ilia Hostetter ended up 17th overall in 23:36.
Morgan McKinney was next in 30th, while Colleen Craig finished 36th and Payton Rhone crossed in 42nd.
“This was a great start to the season, and I truly believe is just a glimpse of what we can accomplish,” Tomas said.
The C-M boys were eighth overall and out of eight teams.
Running without their top runner in Cameron Warner, the Tigerhawks were led by three freshmen — Cauy Furgison in 47th, Nic Duffy in 55th and Jordan Lescaleet in 60th. KC Huffman (64th) and Jake Frier (74th) rounded out the scoring five.
Pekin was the boys’ team champion.
“I know once we get more races under our belt, the boys team is going to challenge teams to be in the top half of some meets,” Tomas said.
Colfax-Mingo is scheduled to run in the Johnston Invitational at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Fort Dodge.