April 26, 2024

Cardinals, Mustangs, Hawks run at Knoxville Invitational

By Jocelyn Sheets

Newton High’s Abbie Barr, seen here in last week’s home meet, was the Cardinals No. 4 runner in Tuesday’s cross country meet at Knoxville. The Cardinal girls finished fifth in the meet. Running in last week’s home meet is Newton High’s Michael Bradley, who helped the Cardinal boys take sixth as a team in Tuesday’s Knoxville Invitational cross country meet. (Jocelyn Sheets)

KNOXVILLE — Three area boys and one girl placed in the top 20 at Tuesday’s Knoxville Invitational varsity cross country races. Newton, Lynnville-Sully and Prairie City-Monroe competed in the Knoxville meet which featured 12 full teams in the girls’ division and 16 in the boys’ division.

Newton High’s Rachel Rhoads posted the top finish among all area runners. Rhoads powered around the 5K course in 20 minutes, 37.5 seconds for ninth place.

Newton’s Jack Callaghan held off PCM’s Chris Ellens to claim 12th in the boys’ varsity 5K race. Callaghan ran a personal-best 17:29.6 seconds and Ellen was 13th in 17:30.2. Lynnville-Sully’s Canyon Kuhlmann was the top Class 1A finisher in the race, taking 17th in 17:36.

Ankeny Centennial swept the varsity team titles as both the girls and boys scored 27 points. In the girls’ race, Ankeny Centennial had four of top five finishers led by Taylor Brown in 19:34.5. Camden Cox of Ankeny Centennial won the boys’ race in 16:17.2.

The Cardinal girls claimed fifth as a team with 152 points with PCM placing seventh with 207 and Lynnville-Sully was ninth with 218 points. Newton’s boys finished sixth with 208 points as PCM placed 11th with 303 and Lynnville-Sully was 14th with 383 points.

“It was a beautiful night for cross country,” Newton girls’ head coach Rachelle Tipton said. “We’ve lucked out with pretty great weather this season, but it cooled off a bit tonight and the girls responded. Rachel had a great race tonight. She ran with some good 4A runners and held off a slew of Pella girls.”

Caelyn Brilley finished just out of the top 20, placing 21st in 21:30.3 as Newton’s No. 2 runner. Tessa Keeton ran 33rd in 22:37.7 followed by Abbie Barr in 38th at 22:14.73 and Ellie Horn in 56th in 24:12.3.

“Caelyn and Abbie really came on strong. They raced well and should gain more confidence heading into the last part of the season,” Tipton said. “Tessa had another solid race tonight; she was fighting a cold and still ran close to her best time. Ellie continues to run well and will be tough in this back half of the season.”

Jayci Vos was 25th to lead the PCM Mustang girls, running the race in 22:03. Payton Schut was 39th in 23:08.9 followed by Megan Townley in 44th in 23:32.3, Baylee Smith in 50th in 23:55.1 and Morgan Uhlenhopp in 61st in 24:56.

Also running for PCM were Morgan Novak, who was 65th in 25:04, and Sara Dudley placing 70th in 25:35.3.

“This was a large meet, but a pretty even mix between large schools and small schools. The good competition combined with cooler temperatures than what we’ve had helped everyone to season best times,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Darin Arkema said of the Hawk girls and boys. “I think the team was excited to see their times and get some assurance that they are improving and the hard work is paying off.”

Lynnville-Sully’s top girl finisher was Ida Byggeth in 31st with a time of 22:27 followed by Marissa Vos in 32nd in 22:31. Kasiah Ehresman placed 43rd in 23:31 and Haley James came across the line in 24:58 for 63rd.

Hailey Scandridge ran the course in 25:02 for 64th. Kristine Jaennette was 66th in 25:04 and Shelby Foster took 77th in 27:21.

Arkema said Byggeth and Marissa Vos were the top two finishers from 1A schools. He said the Hawk teams have a “nice stretch” of days for training, staying healthy and getting ready to see a lot more 1A competition later this season.

Kuhlmann paced the Hawk boys with Lucas Jones finished 75th in 20:05 and Kyle Kramer in 94th at 21:10. Jarred Bassett placed 100th in 22:04 and Caleb Jansen ran 101st in 22:11.

Newton’s boys following Callaghan were led by Michael Bradley in 39th with a time of 18:40.9, Bradley Portner in 40th in 18:41.4. Noah Sander posted a 50th-place time of 19:01 and Adam Hunger was 67th in 19:42. Dylan Main finished 74th in 20:05 and Zach Theis was 91st in 21:00.3.

The PCM boys had Blake Lee crossing the line in 10:01 for 49th as their No. 2 runner in the meet. Trent Howard ran 66th in 19:37.4 followed by Brady North in 87th at 20:45.2 and Noah Henkenius in 20:55.6. Mark Bruxvoort took 96th in 21:30.3 and Caleb Peter was 103rd in 22:35.5.

In the junior varsity girls’ race, Newton’s Rylie Bakalar was 87th in 27:77 and Jordyn Soulle took 96th in 28:38, which were both personal-best times. Lynnville-Sully’s Haley Breeden was 90th in 28:05 while PCM’s Mallory Bell placed 106th in 30:03.

Newton’s boys took ninth as a team and PCM was 11th in the junior varsity division.

Ross Hull led the Newton boys, finishing 51st in 20:55. Chase Dykstra was 71st in 21:57.7 followed by Blake Robson in 98th in 23:12.4, Larkin Christy in 110th in 24:22.3 and Spencer Elbert in 131st in 26:14.5.

PCM was led by Andres Vargas in 87th at 22:29.7, Bradley McClellan in 91st in 22:45.3 and Braden Phifer in 92nd in 22:46.7. Max Van Gorp placed 103rd in 23:17>4 and Jonathan Heath was 118th in 24:49.3.

Newton and PCM travel to Norwalk Monday. Lynnville-Sully is idle until it goes to Montezuma on Oct. 8.

There were middle school races for boys and girls. In the nine-school girls’ division, Newton was fourth with 87 point sand PCM was fifth with 141 points. PCM took fifth in the boys’ division, which had 11 teams competing, and Newton was 10th.

Here are the area middle school results:

Middle School

PCM Boys

7. Jason Stafford, 8, 13:18.0

14. Owen Hugen, 8, 13:53.8

47. Cody Courtney, 8, 15:09.0

49. Garin Padget, 7, 15:18.9

55. Jacob Cox, 8, 15:47.0

65. Ayrton Breckenridge, 8, 16:18.5

84. Garrett Graber, 7, 17:29.5

102. Blake VanderKamp, 8, 20:11.2

Newton Boys

6. Luke Zaabel, 8, 13:17.2

40. Colton Forck, 8, 14:55.6

56. Anthony Bestell, 7, 15:50.1

77. Trent Hammand, 7, 17:05.1

78. Landon Heisdorffer, 8, 17:05.7

80. Thomas Hodnett, 7, 17:06.8

94. Gatlin Chambers, 8, 18:27.4

96. Dakota Gooden, 7, 18:54.6

103. Andrew Culbertson, 7, 20:17.6

108. Parker Sherwood, 8, 21:49.2

Lynnville-Sully boys

101. Hunter McCoy, 7, 20:04.8

Newton girls

15. Jade Miller, 7, 14:45.7

16. Abby Altman, 8, 14:47.1

18. Kynnedei Terpstra, 7, 14:55.6

23. Meg Callaghan, 7, 14:59.0

33. Jenna Smith, 8, 15:39.7

60. Nykole Hernandez, 7, 17:12.4

62. Tes Schuster, 8, 17:15.5

66. Abby Davis, 8, 17:21.0

84. Natalie Forck, 7, 18:54.2

88. Mady Walker, 8, 20:02.6

101. Maddi Gamble, 8, 23:21.6

114. Audrey Boleyn, 8, 30:35.2

PCM girls

19. Sayde White, 8, 14:55.8

21. Emma George, 7, 14:56.9

35. Klaire Jungling, 8, 15:40.7

58. Emma Thomas, 8, 17:07.6

76. Natalie Smith, 8, 18:16.9

77. Breanna Vanderpool, 8, 18:32.8

78. Taylor Eilander, 8, 18:33.4

79. Katie Henkenius, 8, 18:36.1

105. Kimee Gallaher, 8, 24:23.6

Lynnville-Sully girls

68. Heather Young, 7, 17:25.6

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