Newton girls finish second to state-ranked Williamsburg at Grinnell

GRINNELL — A pair of top-five finishes and a trio of medalists highlighted the Newton girls cross country team’s big night inside Ahrens Park on Tuesday.

The girls’ field featured seven schools and three of them are currently in the state rankings, but Newton downed two of them and finished second at the Grinnell Invitational.

“The team absolutely executed the game plan tonight,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “They were to chase down ‘blue’ (Albia, Lynnville Sully), earn some hardware and have fun.”

Class 3A No. 15 Williamsburg placed all five scoring runners in the top 15 and scored 42 points to win the meet championship.

Newton (53) was 11 points back in second, and the rest of the seven-team field included 1A No. 7 Lynnville-Sully (61), 2A No. 10 Albia (68), Benton Community (147), Knoxville (149) and BGM (207).

The Cardinals’ first three finishers were better than the Hawks, but L-S placed its first four runners in the top 13.

“I’m very proud of the team, and how they show up ready to go hard but still have fun and support each other,” Tipton said, “There’s lots of season left, but they’ve got a good thing going.”

Albia had the winner in 2A No. 8 McKenna Montgomery. She finished the girls’ 5K race in 18 minutes, 41.8 seconds.

The runner-up was 3A No. 24 Channing Becker of Williamsburg. She hit the finish line in 19:20.9.

But Newton’s Alexis Sorensen placed third in a career-best 19:58.5. Audrey Muckler (20:29.6) came in fifth, Talia Friedman (21:45.5) posted a career-best time in 11th and Alivia Kingery (22:36.6) just missed a top-15 medal in 16th.

The final scoring runner for Newton was Sarah Malow (23:19.4) in 22nd. Ashlyn Wallace (23:50.7) and Laek Sullivan (26:29.8) were non-scoring runners in 27th and 42nd, respectively.

“(Sorensen) had a phenomenal third mile that got her under 20 minutes for the first time,” Tipton said. (Friedman) also had the goal of top 15 to get a medal, and (Kingery) came very close to getting in there as well. (Malow) has turned the corner and got the strong second part of the race that we know she has in her. she’s ready to keep seeing that time drop.”

Lynnville-Sully’s top finisher was 1A No. 30 Emma Parkinson in eighth. She was clocked in 21:07.

But Mandeesa Vos (21:10.6), Peyton Sharp (21:47.6) and Breah Lowry (22:05.5) all finished inside the top 15 for a medal. Vos placed 10th, Sharp was 12th and Lowry’s career-best time put her in 13th.

Isabelle Vos (23:20.7) was the Hawks’ final scoring runner in 23rd and Katelyn Nikkel (23:44.3) was a non-scoring runner in 25th.

“The high school girls showed no ill effects or let down following Saturday’s race (at Central),” L-S head cross country coach Darin Arkema said. “They picked things up right where they left off, and had four of the six finish in the top 15 earning individual medal honors.”

Host Grinnell had only two runners, but Kyliee Zylstra was fourth in 20:20.7.

Notes: The meet featured girls and boys junior high races followed by the two varsity races and a pair of junior varsity races. The top 10 finishers in the JV race also earned medals. Meghan Trout (24:32) was fourth, and Mia Van Zante (26:43) took 10th. “(Trout’s) goal was to be top 5 and she was in fifth for most of the race, but she zeroed in on the fourth-place girl, closed the gap in the last half mile and had an amazing kick to get her in the end,” Tipton said. “(Van Zante) had a big smile when I told her she could capture 10th place, and after passing the athlete with about a half mile to go she held strong and held the place. It was exciting to get two medalists in the JV race.”