Coen captures LHC cross country crown

DALLAS CENTER — Grace Coen reclaimed her Little Hawkeye Conference crown Thursday. Newton High’s Coen captured her second LHC girls’ cross country championship in three years.

Coen was the Little Hawkeye Conference champion as a freshman. Last year in Grinnell, Coen led the race until the end when Pella’s Kelcey Blommers edged her out and Coen held off Pella’s Tess Roodra for second place.

“It’s nice to be a conference champion. I changed my tactic this year, held back during the early part of the race and had more energy for a final kick,” Coen said of her LHS title run Thursday on the Burnett Sports Complex course at Dallas Center. Coen won the varsity girls’ 4K race in 14 minutes, 58 seconds.

Newton seniors Hailey Coy and Jacob Thomas joined Coen in receiving All-Little Hawkeye Conference honors. Coy turned in an eighth-place finish time of 16:14 in the girls’ varsity race and Thomas placed 11th in the boys’ 5K race in 17:18. The trio earned meet medals and led the Cardinal squads to fourth and fifth for the girls and boys, respectively, at the meet.

Pella’s Lady Dutch and Little Dutch claimed the team championships in the 2014 LHC meet hosted by Dallas Center-Grimes.

Pella’s girls scored 39 points followed by Grinnell with 60 points, DCG with 80 points, Newton with 103 points, Oskaloosa with 105 points and Norwalk with 125 points. The Pella boys won with 40 points followed by Grinnell with 53, DCG with 65, Oskaloosa with 90, Newton with 136 points and Norwalk with 167.

“I’m so happy for Hailey. As a team we set our goal to finish fourth and we accomplished that today,” Coen said “The team ran well today.”

Coy’s eighth-place finish was her best in the past three years at the Little Hawkeye Conference. She finished 21st a year ago. Senior Autumn Hunt finished 28th overall in 17:48, then came four underclassmen for the Cardinal girls.

Freshman Tessa Keeton ran the race in 18:04 followed by sophomores Ellie Horn, 18:19, Michaella Cope, 18:26, and Jordyn Soule, 19:37, in 36th, 38th and 45th, respectively.

“Grace had another great race and is looking good as we head into the end of the season,” said Rachelle Tipton, Newton girls’ head coach. “I’m happy for Hailey to get the all-conference honor in her senior year. She beat girls who had beaten her earlier in the season and pushed through despite having a cold. It shows how tough a competitor she is.

“Autumn fought hard and looked strong in her last conference race. Tessa had another great night moving up and coming in ahead of two key Oskaloosa girls. Ellie and Michaella had good races and Jordyn stepped up to varsity and ran well.”

Coen said she sees the Newton girls’ team competing pretty good right now as the girls head into next’s Class 4A district meet.

“Winning the conference race is a good stepping stone for me in preparing for the district race. I’ll get ready for it and see how that goes,” Coen said. Coen is going after a third straight state qualifying time.

Oskaloosa’s seniors Skylar DeJong and Spencer DeJong went 1-2 in the boys’ varsity race, in 16:08 and 16:10. Thomas paced the Cardinal boys’ team, which had four freshmen place as its No. 2 through No.5 runners.

Mike Bradley took 25th in 18:13 and Jack Callaghan placed 31st in 18:55. Newton had a pack of four runners finish 36th, 37th, 38th and 39th led by freshman Tyler Dafflitto in 19:27. Dylan Main, a freshman, followed in 19:33, then came senior Justin Simms in 19:52 and junior Zach Theis in 20:01.

The Little Hawkeye Conference meet was the final one of the season for the Newton cross country teams. The Cardinal runners turn their attention to preparing for the Class 4A district/regional meet, Oct. 23, at Marshalltown. The state cross country meet is Nov. 1 at Fort Dodge.

In the girls’ junior varsity race, senior Marisa Modlin finished 53rd in 20:46 and junior Annie Hurt was 72nd in 22:22.

“Annie overcame her injury at the start of the season and had a good end to her first year,” Tipton said. “Marisa had her last race tonight and went out fighting. She could always be depended on to give her best effort and is a great supporter for her teammates There were some tears at the finish line. I am certainly going to miss her on the team.”

Newton’s junior varsity boys were fifth as a team. They were led by sophomore Justin Fischer in 19:13 for 22nd followed by junior Chase Dykstra in 19:13 for 37th, sophomore Noah Sander in 20:19 for 47th, freshman Ross Hull in 21:07 for 63rd, freshman Blake Robson in 23:06 for 87th, and freshman Chad Nolin in 23:26 for 92nd.

Newton’s seventh and eighth-grade runners competed in the Little Hawkeye Conference middle school races Thursday. Newton’s girls took fourth, placing three runners in the top 15 spots, and the Newton boys were fifth.

Here are the middle school results for Newton:

Girls: 6. Caelyn Briley, 13:17, 9. Rachel Rhoads, 13:27, 13. Abbie Barr, 13:47, 31. Jenna Smith, 15:00, 61. Abby Davis, 16:40, 62. Bayleigh Hughson, 16:40, 66. Tes Schuster, 17:00, 76. Molly Lamb, 17:24, 85. Madalyn Gamble, 18:50, 91. Ryleigh Harvey, 22:42.

Boys: 18. Colton Forck, 13:13, 19. Adam Hunter, 13:14, 20. Nathan Miller, 13:15, 50. Luke Zaabel, 14:33, 52. Lydell Christy, 14:43, 74. Nathan Simon, 16:11, 78. Isaac Freidman, 16:26, 81. Colin McAnally, 16:33, 91. Kaleb Dydell, 17:43, 92. Parker Sherwood, 17:44, 99. Mitchell Faidley, 19:36, 101. Hunter Pion, 21:37.

Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.