KNOXVILLE — Running on a cool fall day, Newton High’s girls and boys posted personal and season best times competing in Tuesday’s Knoxville Invitational cross country meet.
“This was a huge night for personal records. We bounced back in an amazing way after competing in the Griak Invitational in Minnesota on Saturday,” Newton boys’ head coach Steve Weeks said. “The boys looked loose and confident. It showed in their times.”
The Cardinal boys finished ninth out of 17 teams, scoring 244 points. Nine of the Newton boys who competed in varsity and junior varsity races ran personal-best times on the Pine Knolls Country Club golf course.
Oskaloos was the boys’ champion with 44 points in a field of 17 teams. Grinnell took second with 52 points and Pella was third with 104 points. Colfax-Mingo was 17th with 459 points.
Newton’s girls claimed fourth place as a team in a field of 13 teams. Grinnell was first with 37 points followed by Pella in second with 38 points. Winterset scored 144 points for third and Newton had 171 points, one less than host Knoxville (172) in fifth. Colfax-Mingo scored 335 points for 13th.
“There were so many things the girls did well today and it showed in their times and places,” Newton girls’ head coach Rachelle Tipton said. “For one, we made great use of the downhills and the momentum they created.”
Adam Hunter paced the Cardinal boys with a sixth-place finish. He ran the 5K course in a personal-best time of 17 minutes, 39 seconds. Dylan Main was the No. 2 runner with a 19:07 for 38th place.
“I’m very excited to see Adam get in the 17s, but he did so in such a convincing manner. The next huge surprise and awesome coaching moment comes from junior varsity runner akita Gooden,” Weeks said. “Dakota was in the 30s when he final broke into the 20s twice then tonight he smashed his goal to drop another minute by taking four minutes off his time.”
Running personal-best times for Newton were Luke Zaabel in 19:13 for 43rd, Chad Nolin, 19:38.8, for 63rd, Anthony Bestell, 21:07, for 98th, Blake Robson, 22:20, for 109th and Trent Hamand, 23:22, for 117th.
In the boys’ junior varsity race, all three Newton runners notched personal-best times. Addison Dunwell ran the race in 24:01 followed by Gooden in 24:41 and Isaak Miller, who ran his first-ever race, in 30:32.
The Cardinal girls were led by Rachel Rhoads, who finished 13th in 21:26. Clare Muckler posted a season’s-best time of 21:46 for 20th. Ashay Malow was 25th in a personal-best time of 22:10.
Newton’s No. 4 runner was Tessa Keeton, finishing in a season’s-best time of 24:10 for 61st. Also in a season’s-best time of 24:20, Abbie Barr was 64th. Original Tesfay was 77th in 25:58 and Jenna Smith was 82nd in a season’s-best time of 26:28.
“Rachel did a great job working with the top pack. The rest worked great in pairs,” Tipton said. “Clare and Ashay pushed each other and made moves throughout the race as did Tessa and Abbie and Original and Jenna. Everybody passed somebody that made the difference in our placing fourth.”
Five runners for the Newton girls’ junior varsity team had personal-best times at Knoxville. Williow Oswalt was 35th in a personal-best time of 25:29 followed by Liz McVey in 26:20 for 53rd. Jordan Banfield was 57th in a personal-best 26:54.
Running personal-best times were Abigail Adkison, 27:57, for 70th, Jillian Waits, 32:45, for 98th and Sadie Steinbach, 38:39, for 105th.
Titpton said similar to the varsity race, Oswalt did an amazing job of going out and pushing herself against the top runners, and the others pushed each other. McVey and Banfield ran well together and it was exciting to see Adkison keeping them in her sights, leading to a huge personal record, Tipton said.
“Jillian pushed Sadie through the early part of the race and they also saw big time drops,” Tipton said. “We will use this week to get in some good training and get ready for some fun meets next week and conference after that. We are looking good heading into the last stretch.”
Weeks said the Newton boys’ varsity continues towards its goal of getting all runners under the 20-minute mark. He said they begin to eye their big goal of beating a team or two at the Little Hawkeye Conference meet this season, which Newton hosts on Oct. 9 at Westwood Golf Course.
Newton competes on Monday at Norwalk.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com