Cardinal duo produces top-10 medals at team’s home meet

The Newton girls cross country team had hopes to win its home meet against a pair of ranked teams on Tuesday.

And with a healthy roster, the Cardinals certainly would have made things more interesting.

Unfortunately, illness has run through the squad and only four varsity runners completed the girls’ 5K race at Maytag Park.

But Audrey Muckler and Talia Friedman left the 49th Steve McDermott Invitational with a top-10 medal and competed well against a solid field.

“Unfortunately, it was not the night the team hoped for as there are some battles with sickness happening,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “But for those who completed the race, there’s still a lot to celebrate in progress being made.”

With only four runners completing the race, the Cardinals did not have enough to score as a team.

Muckler though ran nearly 30 seconds faster than last year on the same course and placed fourth overall with a time of 21 minutes, 17.1 seconds.

Friedman also earned a medal in ninth. She was clocked in 23:07.2. The other two Cardinals who completed the race were Sarah Malow (24:08.1) and Meghan Trout (26:48.8), who were 19th and 27th, respectively.

“The hills got me off my pace, but I ran a little less than 30 seconds faster than I ran here last year,” Muckler said. “I’m really happy about that. It gives me confidence that I can continue to time drop at other courses, too.”

Alexis Sorensen and Alivia Kingery started the race but could not finish it due to illness. Trout also is battling through sickness and Ashlyn Wallace was not available either due to illness.

Sorensen, who has been finishing first on the squad in recent races, has helped both Muckler and Friedman this season.

Muckler is working on being better in the third mile, and she also had a competitor behind her throughout the race that helped motivate her to stay in front of.

“She really has helped me,” Muckler said about Sorensen. “We can encourage each other and have mostly the same goals so it’s pretty easy to push each other and score some big points for the team.”

Before this season, Friedman had never finished high enough to be in medal contention. That goes all the way back to middle school. But she’s medaled in every race but one this fall.

“After last year I decided I really liked the sport and found a love for cross country,” Friedman said. “So I committed myself in the offseason, stacked a bunch of miles and (Muckler) and (Sorensen) being so inspiring in front of me has been a big part of my improvement, too.”

Friedman admitted the course at Maytag Park is tough with all the hills and turns, but is used to it because the Cardinals do a lot of training there. She wants to do a better job starting and finishing the races.

“I’ve been known for finishing strong in the past, but I think it can get better, and I need to get out faster, too,” Friedman said. “I’m good at catching people, but if I get out faster, I will catch those who are even closer to the front.”

Class 3A No. 13 ADM won the meet title with 28 points. The Tigers placed two in the top five, four in the top 10 and six in the first 13 positions.

Class 2A No. 6 Albia, which Newton has beaten this season, was the runner-up with 44 points. Marshalltown (78) and Knoxville (83) were the other complete teams in third and fourth, respectively.

Class 2A No. 3 McKenna Montgomery of Albia won the girls’ race in 19:32.7. Her teammate, 2A No. 18 Mady Montgomery, was the runner-up in 20:55.6.

Notes: The Cardinals entered four runners in the junior varsity race. Laek Sullivan (26:09.6) was 11th to lead the way, while Mia Van Zante (28:04.9) placed 23rd. “The team is still on a good progression, and they need to take confidence from the mental toughness a meet like today takes,” Tipton said. “Once again, many ran faster times than the home meet last year, and the few who didn’t saw great improvement from last week.”