Rhoads captures sixth-place medal at Oskaloosa Invitational

OSKALOOSA — Tuesday presented great weather for a run even on a tough course. Newton High’s Cardinal cross country teams competed in the Oskaloosa Invitational meet at Edmundson Park in Oskaloosa.

“This meet always is a test for the athletes’ mental toughness,” Newton girls’ head coach Rachelle Tipton said. “The team gave a good effort at Oskaloosa.”

Newton’s boys ran in a field of 117 runners in the varsity race. The Cardinal boys finished 12th with 272 points. Class 3A fourth-ranked Clear Creek Amana won the boys’ title with 42 points followed by 3A No. 2 Carlislie in second with 49 points.

“We had more separation in our runners as Treycen Garton, Luke Zaabel, and Adam Hunter came in for the top spots on the team as the whole team finished 12th out of 17 teams,” Newton boys’ head coach Steve Weeks said.

There were 16 team in the girls’ varsity division with 3A third-ranked Ballard winning with 64 points. Grinnell, ranked No. 12 in 3A, and Carlisle, ranked No. 10 in 3A, were second and third with 73 points and 79 points.

Newton’s girls finished eighth with 233 points. Host Oskaloosa took seventh in both the girls’ and boys’ varsity divisions. There were 109 runners in the girls’ varsity race.

Senior Rachel Rhoads turned in the top performance of the day for Newton, She claimed the sixth-place medal, running the 5K course in 21 minutes, 5.9 seconds.

Carlisle freshman Ainsley Erzen, who is ranked No. 2 in Class 3A, won the girls’ varsity race in 19:20.7. Class 3A 17th-ranked Mary Blanchard, Grinnell junior, was fifth in 20:56.0.

Oskaloosa senior Carter Huyser posted the winning time of 17:18.2 in a boys’ race filled with 3A ranked runners. Huyser is ranked 30th. The top seven finishers ran below the 18-minute mark.

Newton’s girls had sophomore Ashay Malow finishing 28th in 22:48.7 and senior Clare Muckler in 44th at 23:52.4. Sophomore Willow Oswalt placed 80th in 26:03.3 and junior Jenna Smith was 84th in a season’s-best 26:12.9.

“With new teams competing this year it was good to place in the top half of teams,” Tipton said of the Cardinal girls. “Jenna had a great race tonight. She got a great start and held on strong. Her and Willow worked well together and pushed each other throughout.”

The non-scoring runners for Newton’s varsity girls were freshmen Morgan Stalzer and Kelsey Church. Stalzer was 98th in 28:01.7 and Church placed 99th in 28:14.7.

“Compared to last year here, our times were faster across the board. Good things are happening and are in store for this team,” Tipton said.

Freshman Treycen Garton paced the Cardinal boys with a top-30 finish. Garton placed 23rd in 18:46.5. Junior Luke Zaabel ran 40th in 19:24.5 and senior Adam Hunter took 56th in 19:47.7.

Jackson Mace-Maynard finished 62nd in 19:54.8 and sophomore Anthony Bestell was 91st in 20:54.7. The non-scoring runners were freshmen Hunter Kennedy in 97th in 21:06.7 and Derek Beiner in 113th in 23:18.

“Jackson moved up to the fourth spot and Anthony edged out Hunter in the final stretch to get the last scoring spot as cross country earns team points from the first five finalists,” Weeks said. “Derek finished the race with a rolled ankle.”

In the boys’ junior varsity division, Newton finished 13th led by first-time NHS cross country runners Emmanuel Roy and Nathaniel Zemene. The two freshmen ran 21:15.1 and 21:20.9 for 46th and 55th, respectively.

Sophomore Trent Hamand was 142nd in 24:06.5, finishing just ahead of junior Noah Cook in 143rd in 24:10.4. Weeks said the two were neck-and-neck at the finish. He also said first-year senior Nathan Jennings continues to drop his time, running a 25:08.9 for 165th. Sophomore Dakota Gooden dropped his time to 26:39.1 for 173rd.

Junior Tes Schuster led the Cardinal girls’ junior varsity to ninth with a 31st time of 27:31.7, which was season best. Senior Gerima Blair was 76th in 32:32.4 followed by freshman Heather Perry in 81st in 33:31.1. Freshman Amor Hilburn was 93rd in 41:07.7 and sophomore Emma Ham was 95th in 45:44.3.

“It was great to field a junior varsity team to score tonight. Tes looked tough and worked hard through the hills,” Tipton said.

Newton prepares for its annual Cardinal Invitational next Tuesday. Races begin at 4 p.m. at Newton’s Westwood Golf Course.

The Newton Berg Middle School cross country teams competed at Oskaloosa on Tuesday. Williamsburg won both the girls’ and boys’ races. The Newton boys were 11th and the girls were 10th. Here are the Newton results:

Middle School Boys

15. Collin Buchi, 8th, 10:39.0

56. Landon Manninga, 7th, 12:02.7

72. Keyten Doland, 8th, 12:26.8

77. Brody Fuller, 8th, 12:40.4

84. Drew Dawson, 7th, 12:54.0

95. Harry Oswalt, 7th, 13:07.6

97. Presley Arnold, 7th, 13:11.1

111. Collin Cummins, 7th, 13:47.0

113. Caden Manninga, 8th, 13:53.8

115. Makaj Kurcheck, 7th, 13:56.4

129. Branden Holchuh, 8th, 14:31.4

168. Tucker Snuck, 8th, 17:13.5

Middle School Girls

46. Taylor Maki, 7th, 13:31.7

56. Addie Church, 7th, 13:59.1

58. Kate Muckler, 8th, 14:04.5

59. Alyssa Beerends, 7th, 14:04.7

90. Desirae Gifford, 7th, 15:24.4

112. Alyssa Hinderberger, 8th, 16:49.4

113. Carmen Faidley, 7th, 16:54.1

118. Emma Fresh, 7th, 17:28.9

120. Keila Sev, 8th, 17:33.9

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