March 29, 2024

Newton XC finishes sixth, seventh at LHC meet

NORWALK — Five juniors led Newton's boys' cross country team at the Little Hawkeye Conference meet on Monday night.

Jackson Mace-Maynard earned the school's only medal, leading the Cardinal boys to a sixth-place finish at McAninch Sports Complex.

The Cardinal girls, led by Kelsey Church, were seventh in the seven-team field.

"I was very proud of our race," Newton boys coach Steve Weeks said. "The LHC has some of the toughest competition around."

Mace-Maynard finished 15th in the boys' 5K race, finishing in 16 minutes, 56 seconds. That time ranks in the top 10 all-time at Newton for a boys' 5K race.

The boys' field included three ranked teams and eight ranked runners. The girls' race featured three ranked schools and at least five ranked runners.

Class 4A No. 9 Norwalk won the boys' team race with 36 points. Class 3A No 1 Dallas Center-Grimes was second with 47 points and 3A No. 3 Pella finished third with 71.

Indianola (106), Oskaloosa (139), Newton (156), Grinnell (187) and Pella Christian (194) rounded out the eight-team field.

Treycen Garton was 22nd for the Cardinals in 17:14. Brennan Amos (18:23) finished 32nd, Derek Beiner (18:58) was 41st and Hunter Kennedy (19:20) completed the scoring runners in 46th.

Collin Buchli (20:28) and Parker Aalbers (21:10) were the final two varsity runners in 53rd and 54th, respectively.

Three JV runners had faster times than at least one runner on the varsity. Landon Menninga (19:08) was 37th in the JV race, Leo Friedman (19:44) finished 61st and Anthony Bestell (20:20) was 78th.

"I will miss my four-year seniors Anthony Bestell, Parker Aalbers and Dakota Gooden," Weeks said. "This is the way you want to finish a JV season and now the varsity gets to focus on qualifying for state at our district meet next week."

Church headlined the girls' team with a 33rd-place finish in 22:29. Ashay Malow (22:41) was next in 35th followed by Morgan Stalzer (23:08) in 37th, Kate Muckler (23:57) in 45th and Willow Oswalt (25:03) in 48th.

Desirae Gifford (26:19) finished 51st and Taylor Maki (26:49) was 52nd to round out the varsity runners.

Class 3A No. 3 DCG won the girls' team title with 34 points, while 4A No. 13 Indianola (50) was second. Class 4A No. 14 Norwalk (54) placed third and Pella, a "team to watch" in 3A, was fourth with 99 points.

Grinnell (168), Oskaloosa (177) and Newton (189) completed the field.

Class 4A No. 22 Emily Naughton of Indianola won the girls' race in 18:43. Class 3A No. 3 Aidan Ramsey of DCG was the boys' winner in 15:23.