September 17, 2025
ProfessionalCollege SportsLocal SportsSports Column

Cardinal duo highlights Newton boys’ fourth-place finish at Oskaloosa

Cardinals were seven points back of third place

By Troy Hyde
Cooper Christy

Newton junior Cooper Christy led the Cardinals with a third-place finish at the Oskaloosa Invitational on Tuesday. (Colin Peters/Oskaloosa Herald )

OSKALOOSA — A pair of top-five finishes led the Newton boys cross country team to a fourth-place finish at the Oskaloosa Invitational on Tuesday.

The Cardinals trailed Class 3A No. 17 Carlisle by 47 points but cleared fifth-place Knoxville by 35 on a hot evening at Edmundson Park.

“The boys had a great run in the hills, but it was another race where we just came up a few points shy behind some teams we’ve been chasing,” Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “It’s been really enjoyable watching them improve, and now we work on closing the gaps we have on the team where we lose a lot of team points.”

Lance Zaabel

Newton senior Lance Zaabel posted a career-best time in the boys' 5K race at the Oskaloosa Invitational on Tuesday. He was fourth in the race, and the Cardinals placed fourth as a team. (Colin Peters/Oskaloosa Herald )

Carlisle’s Kael Streeter won the boys’ 5K race in 16 minutes, 23.2 seconds. The state-ranked Wildcats put their five scoring runners in the first 17 positions, all seven varsity runners were in the top 25 and they scored 46 points to win the meet championship.

Oskaloosa (74), Williamsburg (86), Newton (93) and Knoxville (128) completed the top five.

Albia (131), Davis County (205), Ottumwa (209), Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (236) and New London (298) finalized the 10-team field.

Streeter is 15th in the latest 3A rankings. Class 3A No. 11 Isaac Rankin of Knoxville was the race runner-up in 16:42.2.

Newton’s Cooper Christy and Lance Zaabel were next in third and fourth, respectively.

Christy was clocked in 17:04.4 and Zaabel posted a career-best time of 17:18.5.

The top 20 finishers in each varsity race earned medals. Levi Zaabel (19:08) was 21st, Abel Aldama (19:37) finished 33rd and David Wickett (19:53.1) crossed the finish line in 37th as the final scoring runners.

Drew Lamont

Newton sophomore Drew Lamont runs in the boys' 5K race at the Oskaloosa Invitational on Tuesday. (Colin Peters/Oskaloosa Herald )

Drew Lamont (20:31.4), Ben Magana (20:42.3) and Noah Tremel (20:53.8) were non-scoring runners in 49th, 53rd and 57th, respectively.

“It was great to see some strong races from (Christy) and (Lance Zaabel),” Weeks said. “(Levi Zaabel) and (Aldama) were pushing themselves tough, (Lamont) and (Wickett) continue to go back-and-forth, (Magana) had a good showing and (Tremel) has a new found motivation, which is something a coach always loves to see.”

Notes: The next set of Cardinal runners were Chase Lundberg (22:30.6) and Hayden Flaherty (23:04.8), who finished 81st and 85th, respectively. Emerson Cook (23:25.2) was 91st. “(Lundberg) led the next pack of runners and was followed closely by Hayden Flaherty and (Cook), two JV guys who have been really improving and making lots of gains and are now pushing for the top of the JV pack of runners.”