March 19, 2024

NHS girls take fourth at Cardinal Invitational

Golds go to Kalkhoff, distance medley relay

Newton High’s girls faced a packed field in Thursday’s 2015 Cardinal Invitational. There were 14 schools competing in the girls’ division.

Head track coach Rachel Tomas said the Cardinal girls always run better at home.

“The weather is great today and we have a lot of strong competition to go up against,” Tomas said just after the meet began. “We’re competing at home, which energizes the girls.”

Senior Sarah Kalkhoff also throws well at home. She was Newton’s only individual champion at its home meet at H.A. Lynn Stadium. Kalkhoff began the day, throwing an inch shorter than her best — 39 feet, 4 inches — to capture the gold medal in the shot put.

The defending Class 4A state discus champion didn’t have her best day in the discus ring, throwing 129-6. But it will do. Kalkhoff won the discus gold.

“We’ve had four meets in six days, and along with weightlifting, we haven’t had a lot of time to practice and really get better,” Kalkhoff said. “I was throwing on really tired legs today. I’m happy with how I threw today.”

Newton finished fourth as a team with 58 points and Collins-Maxwell/Baxter, which brought a few athletes to go after better marks, scored 14 points for 13th. Pella ran away, amassing 174 points for the team championship.

Cedar Rapids Prairie was a distant second at 96.5 points followed by Boone with 75.50 for third. Adel-Desoto-Minburn was fifth with 56 points followed by Indianola with 55, Oskaloosa with 46, Grinnell with 41, Marshalltown with 31, Norwalk with 30, Knoxville with 27 and Albia with 24. Bondurant-Farrarr had 13 points.

Kalkhoff knew going into Thursday’s track meet she was sitting in good positions in both events to qualify for next week’s Drake Relays in Des Moines. Newton teammate Grace Coen is qualified in the 800, 1,500 and 3,000 races at the Drake Relays.

“Grace is set for Drake Relays. We’re using her in a couple of relays. Our 4x100 is already in the Drake Relays’ field. We going out to see if we can lower time in the 4x400 and 4x200 tonight also,” Tomas said.

Coen, a junior, anchored the Cardinals’ 1,600-meter distance medley relay to a winning time of 4 minutes, 21.27 seconds. Kenna Winther led the race off with Jordan Banfield and Hailey Coy ran the middle legs. That time moved Newton to fifth overall in the state and fourth in Class 4A.

Sydney Jenkins, Liz McVey, Alex Hutchinson and Leela Spencer combined to run a season’s-best 1:49.31, placing fourth Thursday in the 4x200. Drake Relays takes the top 24 4x200 relay times. Newton is 32nd.

Jenkins, Coen, Coy and Alexis Stout ran the 4x400 relay in 4:09.91, which was a season’s best for the Cardinals, for fourth place. It just wasn’t quite quick enough, landing Newton in the 27th spot in the state and the Drake Relays take the top 24 times.

CMB’s Maddy Poage, Toni Spencer, Mackenzie Schmitz and Bridget Hurley posted a second-place finish in the 800 sprint medley relay, going for a possible entry to the Drake Relays. Their time was 1:54.46, which put them at No. 37. The top 24 are invited to the Drake Relays.

The Raider girls scored points in the shot put. Payge Jurgens finished sixth with a throw of 35-11. In the long jump, Toni Spencer was eighth at 15-1.25 and CMB teammate Sailor Hinegardner was ninth at 14-9.75. Poage tied with Newton’s Hannah Boecker for 13th in the high jump, clearing the bar at 4-4.

Newton’s Stout finished second in the 400 hurdles in 1:12.54 and Kaelee Knoll was 12th in 1:24.46. Morgann Eide ran eighth in the 100 high hurdles in 17.42. Fran Lucas took 17th in 18:05 seconds followed by Taylor Shipley at in 18th at 18:30 and Audrey Lucas in 22nd at 18.56.

Stout, Eide, McVey and Fran Lucas combined for fourth in the shuttle hurdle race in 1:10.08. Newton’s other relay team of Audrey Lucas, Shipley, Brenna Schwenker finished ninth in 1:15.82.

Newton’s Spencer ran fifth in the 200-meter dash in 27.63 seconds and Hutchinson was seventh in 28.71. Winther placed 14th in 29.69, Serenity Stier was 21st in 31.03, Bethany Risius was 32nd in 33.94 and Shannah Ergenbright was 34th in 35.77.

In the 100 meters, Steir was 27th in 15.80, Hannah Yeager was 30th in 15.65, Brooke Wolf was 32nd in 15.9 and Ergenbright took 37th in 16.6. Sydney Hook placed 11th in 400 meters while Destiny Lautenback was 18th in 1:19.73 and Risius was 19th in 1:22.46.

CMB’s foursome of Poage, Toni Spencer, Hurley and Mackenzie Schmitz finished seventh in the 4x100 relay race in 53.55 seconds. Newton’s team of Eide, McVey, Winther and Jordan Banfield was 10th in 54.57 and Newton’s team of Stier, Young, Wolf and Hannah Boecker was 13th in 59.59.

Newton’s 4x800 relay team of Tessa Keeton, Knoll, Megan Van Dalen and Autumn Hunt was seventh in 11:29.58. The 800 sprint medley relay team of Banfield, Fran Lucas, Audrey Lucas and Hook was 11th in 2:09.10.

Keeton was 10th in the 1,500 in 5:38.77 and Annie Hunt ran 15:46.90 for 15th in the 3,000 meters. Others in the 1,500 for Newton: 18. Van Dalen, 6:02.63, 25. Kayla Botterbrodt, 6:30.16. Hunt was 21st in 800 in 3:01.29 and Sarah Prendergast was 26th in 3:14.19.

Winther finished 13th in the long jump at 13-11.75 and Prendergast was 16th with a leap of 11-8.75.

Others in the discus for Newton: 14. Haley Revell, 92-11, 23. Ali Bestell, 78-5, 27. Bailey Wall, 70-6, 31. Miranda Ervin, 63-6, 34. Jaylin Bucklin, 56-8. Others in the shot put for Newton: 16. (tie) Bestell and Revell, 29-10.5, 21. Wall, 28-5, 24. Ervin, 27-5.5, 33. Bucklin, 25.0.

Newton’s girls compete at Dowling Catholic Monday. The CMB girls travel to Gilbert Monday.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com