Cardinal harriers face toughest test of season at Fort Dodge

FORT DODGE — The Little Hawkeye Conference presents the Newton cross country teams with a big challenge every year.

Three of the Cardinals’ toughest competition this season joined them at the Fort Dodge Invitational on Thursday, and both squads finished near the bottom of the more than 20-team lineups.

The Cardinal boys placed 21st in their 27-team field, while the girls were 22nd in a field of 25 teams at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.

The girls’ side of the meet featured 11 teams ranked in Class 4A, four squads in the 3A rankings and a ranked 1A program.

Ten ranked 4A teams highlighted the boys’ field, and a pair of 3A ranked squads also finished ahead of Newton.

“We love to run these tough events, to go toe-to-toe with some of the toughest teams in the state and see where we stack up,” Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “And any chance to run on the state course is a fantastic experience. It’s akin to getting to play a round of golf at Augusta, you just need to do it. Now with almost no turnaround time, we need to get ready for the Little Hawkeye Conference meet, which very well may have some of the toughest competition from top to bottom.”

The Cardinals scored 654 points in 21st in the boys’ standings. Class 4A No. 1 Indianola won the meet with 92 points.

Class 4A No. 4 Dallas Center-Grimes (110) edged 4A No. 14 Johnston (113) for second and the rest of the top 10 included 4A No. 8 Ankeny Centennial (124), 4A No. 12 Norwalk (128), 4A No. 5 Waukee Northwest (129), 4A No. 10 Dowling Catholic (178), 4A No. 15 Waukee (214) and 4A No. 18 West Des Moines Valley (266).

Class 3A No. 7 ADM was 15th with 424 points and 3A No. 18 Carlisle scored 526 points in 18th.

Cooper Christy highlighted the Cardinals’ day with a 71st-place finish in the boys’ 5K race. He was clocked in 17 minutes, 4.5 seconds. Lance Zaabel was 104th in 17:33.8.

“(Christy) and (Lance Zaabel) continue to stand out, but the rest of the varsity team were all within 30 seconds of each other,” Weeks said. “That’s a really solid accomplishment. Now we just need to work on moving that whole pack of runners to a lower time.”

Levi Zaabel (19:15.8) finished 190th, Drew Lamont (19:27.1) took 196th and David Wickett (19:33.3) was the final scoring runner in 201st.

Abel Aldama (19:42.7) and Noah Tremel (19:44.1) led the non-scoring runners in 210th and 211th, respectively. Chase Lundberg (20:57), Ben Magaña (21:57.9) and Hayden Flaherty (22:04.1) were 229th, 235th and 237th, respectively.

Hudson Swarts led the junior varsity runners but came in faster than some of the varsity finishers at 21:52.4.

Indianola won the meet after placing its five scoring runners in the top 27. DCG put four runners in the top 24.

Class 4A No. 6 Kuma Gutema of Sioux City North won the boys’ race in 15:16.8. Class 4A No. 3 Jack Crossland of Johnston was the runner-up in 15:23.7.

Alexis Sorensen led all Cardinal runners in 62nd place. She posted a time of 20:17.6, but Talia Friedman (21:34.4) and Alivia Kingery (22:22.4) each posted career-best times in 124th and 153rd, respectively.

Sarah Malow (22:59.6) and Audrey Muckler (23:52.1) were the final scoring runners in 177th and 196th, respectively.

The non-scoring group was led by Ashlyn Wallace (24:10.5) and Laek Sullivan (25:48.6) in 202nd and 211th, respectively. Wallace reached the finish line despite sustaining a bloody nose on the course.

The other non-scoring runners were Mia Van Zante (26:55.2), Meghan Trout (27:45.4) and Layla Simon (32:00.3) in 214th, 216th and 218th, respectively.

“(Sorensen) got a bit boxed in during the first half mile but moved well and made up lots of ground,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “(Friedman) started making her moves a little sooner today and it paid off with a PR, while (Kingery) showed a lot of grit in her finish to get her PR as well.

“(Wallace) got a bloody nose in the middle of her run and she finished incredibly well considering the circumstances. (Van Zante) and (Simon) both looked and ran with extra confidence today.”

Class 4A No. 3 Piper Messerly of DCG won the girls’ race in 18:11.1. Class 4A No. 10 Laney Sundet of Waukee Northwest was the runner-up in 18:19.3.

Class 4A No. 3 Waukee Northwest won the girls’ team title with 57 points. The Wolves put four scoring runners in the top 20.

Class 4A No. 4 Centennial was the runner-up after going 4-5-18 at the top of its lineup.

The rest of the top 10 included 4A No. 7 DCG (115), 4A No. 2 Johnston (146), 4A No. 8 Waukee (189), 4A No. 13 Valley (206), 4A No. 14 Dowling Catholic (208), 4A No. 19 Ames (223), 4A No. 10 Norwalk (233), 4A No. 15 Des Moines Roosevelt (254).

The 25-team field also included 4A No. 16 Southeast Polk, 3A No. 20 Sioux City Heelan, 3A No. 8 Ballard, 2A No. 2 Unity Christian, 3A No. 13 ADM and 1A No. 19 Fort Dodge St. Edmond, which finished 24th.

“While our conference is undoubtedly tough, in terms of the sheer number of teams, this is the toughest competition we see all season,” Tipton said. “The team put up a good fight and still had a very nice night despite a couple setbacks.”