March 28, 2024

Newton girls end season at 3A state qualifier

PELLA — Newton’s girls’ cross country team got better and better as the season progressed in 2020.

Nothing showed the improvement more than the Cardinals’ head-to-head battle with Oskaloosa.

And at the Class 3A state qualifier at Pella Sports Park on Wednesday, Newton nearly came all the way back against the Indians.

The Cardinals didn’t qualify an individual for next week’s state meet, but they did fare better against Oskaloosa than at any other time this season.

“The girls certainly went after it tonight and closed that gap even more on Oskaloosa,” Newton girls head coach Rachelle Tipton said. “I am proud of the effort the team has put in over the season and how they never settled and kept improving.”

On Sept. 15, Oskaloosa defeated the Newton girls by 51 points at its home meet. One week later at the Cardinal Invitational, Newton closed the gap to 28 points. And last week at the conference meet, the Cardinals were only 12 points behind the Indians.

Newton did not ever finish in front of Oskaloosa in 2020, but only a single point separated the two teams in the latest meeting.

Oskaloosa was 10th with 238 points at the 3A state qualifier, while Newton was 11th with 239. Fairfield finished 12th with 287.

Fairfield was better than Newton by 17 points at the Oskaloosa meet in mid-September.

Two Cardinal harriers had personal-best times on Wednesday and three others recorded season-best performances.

The top 15 individual finishers clinched spots in next week’s state meet.

Newton’s top finisher was junior Kelsey Church in 36th with a personal-best time of 22 minutes, 13 seconds.

Sophomore Kate Muckler turned in a season-best time of 22:24.23 as she was 39th overall. Senior Ashay Malow also had a season-best time of 22:40.35 in 43rd.

The other two scoring runners for Newton were junior Morgan Stalzer in 53rd and freshman Desirae Gifford in 68th. Stalzer’s time was clocked at 23:14.6 and Gifford had a personal-best time of 24:11.

Senior Willow Oswalt had a season-best time of 24:23 as she finished 70th in her final high school race.

“Willow was the definition of never giving up in her last race,” Tipton said. “She ran down an Osky pack and got ahead of their fifth girl.

“It was also great to see Ashay help push our front pack and finish with a season-best time. We will miss the leadership and effort of those two next year.”

Class 3A No. 1 Ballard won the team race with 24 points. All seven runners for the Bombers were in the top 15. Unranked Pella finished second with 63 points followed by Carlisle in third with 93.

Class 3A No. 10 Mount Vernon/Lisbon fell short of a team berth in fourth with 100 points.

Class 3A No. 1 Paityn Noe of Ballard won the girls’ race in 17:35.62. Her teammate, No. 2 Shewaye Johnson, was next in 17:49.53.

Class 3A No. 3 Ainsley Erzen of Carlisle was third in 18:27.98.