Cards open season at hilly SE Polk Invite
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| Newton senior Katie Ranard works her way up a hill during Tuesday's Southeast Polk Invitational. Ranard finished 27th in the junior/senior race with a time of 18 minutes, 11 seconds. (Ben Frotscher/Daily News) |
RUNNELLS — It was a change of venue this season for the Southeast Polk Invite.
In years past, the cross country meet has been held in a park in Altoona or near the old Southeast Polk High School. This year, the meet moved to the scenic and hilly Southeast Polk Ecology Field Station north of Runnells.
“This is a true cross country course,” Newton girls coach Mike Castings said. “It’s real tough, got some hills on it. For the kids that have asthma or breathing problems, it was brutal.”
Newton’s girls team brought 12 runners to the meet where freshmen and sophomores ran together and juniors and seniors competed against each other.
In the upperclassmen race, senior Katie Ranard led the Cardinals by taking 27th in a time of 18 minutes, 11 seconds. Katie Stynch of Ankeny won the race in a time of 16:17.
“Katie ran real smooth,” Castings said. “She’s had some injuries in the past, but she’s looking real strong this year.”
Junior Mariah Doland was 65th in the same race with a time of 20:15, while junior Sarah Penning was 70th in 20:31. Senior Abby Reed started strong but ended up 74th in a time of 20:34.
“Sarah fell and hurt her ankle last week and was on crutches for three days,” Castings said. “Abby has been fighting and struggling with shin splints for about a week. She did a real gutsy job.”
In the underclassmen race, sophomore Josie Thurmond led Newton with a 13th-place finish in a time of 18:06, while sophomore Alexis DesPlanque — in her first year of cross country — was 21st in 18:29.
“We have some kids that are going to be able to get up there and run at the front for us,” Castings said. “They are young, and we have a couple good seniors in Abby and Katie.”
Sophomore Jenny Johnson was 55th in 20:36, freshman Amanda Martin was 68th in 21:04, sophomore Anna Lothe was 83rd in 21:30, sophomore Katelyn McCarey was 98th in 22:13, freshman Halie Doland was 116th in 22:59 and freshman Kandice Brekenridge was 121st in 23:42.
Bailey Eppard of Johnston won the underclassmen race in a time of 16:14.
Newton’s boys cross country team also received a strong performance from a mixture of upperclassmen and underclassmen.
In the junior/senior race, senior Mitch Roush led the Cardinals by taking 30th in a time of 19:46, while senior Joe Lothe was 38th in 20:14.
“The course was a little long,” Newton boys coach Tom Bartello said. “I was thinking they would run a little faster than they did. They pretty much ran where they’ve been running in practice, so it wasn’t a big surprise.”
Junior Grant Cooling was 58th in 21:24, junior Colton Gearhart was 81st in 23:04, junior David Patterson was 105th in 25:26, junior Gunnar Shipley was 107th in 25:35 and junior Cal Fisher was 120th in 29:26.
Eli Horton of Southeast Polk won the upperclassmen race in a time of 16:19, while Jordan Schultze of Indianola won the underclassmen race in a time of 17:28.
Newton was led by sophomore Alex Osborn in a time of 20:19, which put him 26th, while sophomore Tom Miller was 36th in 21:09. Sophomore Tanner Hull was 38th in 21:16, freshman Neal Hayden was 113th in 29:07, freshman Koby Hull was 115th in 30:01 and freshman Connor Claypool was 120th in 33:16.
Bartello sees room for improvement from his team.
“We’re going to work a little bit harder,” Bartello said. “It’s a tough course. It’s a lot harder than it was last year. We’ll see how we do Tuesday in Grinnell.”
Castings, on the girls side, was glad to be able to see conference foes Pella and Knoxville right off the bat.
“We did get a little feel,” Castings said. “If we get everybody healthy and we push, we can open it up a little bit more. I think it’s going to be a pretty good conference hunt this year. I think it’s doable this year. We run against them several times. We’ll know each other all real well.”
