Cardinal harriers compete at Indianola

INDIANOLA — Homecoming activities put a bit of crimp in Newton High’s cross country teams’ competition at Thursday’s Indianola Invitational.

The Newton girls had three runners, all competing in the varsity race. Newton’s boys ran seven in the junior varsity race.

Tessa Keeton finished 22nd in the girls’ varsity 5K race in 22 minutes, 23 seconds. Ellie Horn was 38th in 23:41 and Michaella Cope placed 57th in 27 minutes.

“We were small in number, but definitely mighty,” Newton girls’ coach Rachelle Tipton said. “All three girls ran terrific and had personal best times.

“Tessa had a fantastic second half of the race. She found a couple girls to go with and pull her along and then beat them to the finish. Ellie and Michaella showed how tough they are Thursday night. It was a beautiful evening, a good course and a great race to follow up the home meet.”

Taylor Brown led Ankeny Centennial to the team title by winning the girls’ race in 19:50. Ankeny Centennial score 23 points and Pella was a distant second with 61 points. There were eight full teams and 57 runners competing in the race.

In a very crowded junior varsity boys’ race, Newton took ninth among 14 teams. The Cardinals scored 245 points. There were 336 runners in the race.

“Conflicts with homecoming parade kept our numbers low,” Newton boys’ coach Steve Weeks said. “I elected to compete only a junior varsity squad so we can recover from a very tough home meet earlier on Tuesday.”

Jack Callaghan led the Cardinals with a 14th-place time of 18:39 in the 5K race. Noah Sander was the No. 2 runner for Newton, taking 58th in 19:40. Dylan Main placed 69th in 19:52.

Adam Hunter placed 145th in 21:06 followed by Ross Hull in 148th at 21:09. Zach Theis finished 152nd in 21:13 and Blake Robson was 294th in 24:30.

Newton’s teams should be running at full force again for Tuesday’s Knoxville Invitational.