Newton’s middle school athletes compete in state meets

Newton’s Berg Middle School track teams competed in state meets Saturday. Newton hosted the 2014 middle school boys’ state track meet at H. A. Lynn Stadium. Newton’s girls traveled to Waukee for the 2014 middle school girls’ state meet.

Newton has one middle school state champion.

Jaise Gulling captured the gold medal in the seventh-grade large school division’s shot put with a throw of 30 feet, 8 1/4 inches. Ben Peterson took the silver medal at 29’10 3/4”.

Gulling also finished second in the discus with a distance of 94’4”. Matt Moran was third in the event at 80’10”. Moran placed in two races, taking fifth in the 800-meter run in 2 minutes, 29.42 seconds and fifth in the 1,600-meter run in 5:21.36.

Josh Miller was third in the seventh-grade large school division’s 100-meter dash in 13.19 seconds. Miller ran sixth in the 200-meter dash in 28.68 seconds.

In the eighth-grade large school division, Newton’s Marlon Coleman captured second in the 100-meter hurdles in 13.22 seconds. Jack Callaghan placed third in the 400-meter dash in 55.44 seconds and sixth in the 100-meter dash in 12.41 seconds.

Djuanyel Denham placed third in the shot put with a toss of 39’4 1/4” followed by Newton teammate Jace Lukefahr in fourth at 38’ 1/2”. Lukefahr was 10th in the discus at 99’7”.

Nate Van Zee tied for fifth in the high jump, clearing the bar at 5 feet. Callaghan was seventh in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet.

Newton’s eighth graders placed seventh in both the sprint medley relay and the 4x100-meter relay.

The Newton seventh-grade boys finished fifth as a team and the eighth-grade boys were seventh.

FOR THE GIRLS at Waukee, Newton's eighth-grade team finished eighth out of 26 teams and the seventh-grade team tied for 12th out of 21 teams. The girls' state meet was cut short because of severe weather threats.

In the eighth-grade division, the 100-meter shuttle hurdle foursome of Lane Dethrow, Liz McVey, Audrey Lucas and Morgan Eide captured the third-place medal in 1:15.65. Eide took sixth in the 100-meter hurdle race in 17.69 seconds.

Alexis Stout placed fifth in the 200-meter hurdles in 31.80 seconds. Stout combined with Karley Leiker, Lizzie McVey and Jordan Banfield for sixth place in the sprint medley relay race at 2:07.48.

Haley Revell and Abby Blom placed third and fourth, respectively, in the eighth-grade discus event. Revell had a throw of 79’9 1/2” and Blom went 74’10 1/2”.

Newton’s seventh-grade distance medley relay team of Cailyn Briley, Teddie Bunsmann, Abbie Barr and Rae Anna McClelland posted a fifth-place time of 5:11.71. Barr took sixth in the high jump, clearing the bar at 4’4”.

Newton’s girls host their conference meet Tuesday at H.A. Lynn Stadium while the boys go to Oskaloosa for the conference meet.