Cardinal harriers place seventh at LHC meet

INDIANOLA — The Newton cross country teams faced five ranked programs during the Little Hawkeye Conference meet on Tuesday.

And both Cardinal squads finished seventh in the seven-team fields at Pickard Park.

“I’m beyond proud of our guys in such a tough conference,” Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “Times consistently dropped across the board due to lots of hard work.

“(Christy) and (Lance Zaabel) ran with a very talented pack of runners and put up some great times.”

The top Newton finisher was Audrey Muckler, who placed 19th in the girls’ 5K race. That led the Cardinals to 186 points in the final standings, but they were without top runner Alexis Sorensen.

Class 3A No. 1 Pella won the girls’ conference title with 22 points. The Lady Dutch placed all seven varsity runners in the top 16 and 3A No. 1 Marissa Ferebee won the girls’ race in 17 minutes, 45.7 seconds.

Class 4A No. 6 Dallas Center-Grimes was the team runner-up with 56 points. The rest of the field included 4A No. 15 Norwalk (77), 4A No. 19 and host Indianola (96), 2A No. 3 Pella Christian (138) and Oskaloosa.

“We were short-handed today, but I’m proud of the fight from the team,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “Our focus in the next week will be ensuring everyone gets and stays healthy.”

Muckler’s time was clocked in 20:11. Talia Friedman was 32nd in 21:38, and the other scoring runners were Alivia Kingery (23:01.1) in 44th, Ashlyn Wallace (23:41.9) in 45th and Sarah Malow (24:19.2) in 46th. Laek Sullivan (24:44.9) was a non-scoring runner in 47th.

“(Muckler) had a very nice race coming back after last week and just missed the top 15 but ran a time that should give her confidence going into next week,” Tipton said. “(Wallace) really dug in over the last three-fourths of the race. She was determined and got back to a time in the 23s.”

The girls’ race featured nine runners who are in the most recent individual rankings.

Class 4A No. 15 Tenley Heidgerken of DCG was the runner-up in 17:59.2. The Mustangs finished second as a team after putting four in the top 13.

Class 3A No. 4 Elise Brenneman of Pella was third, 4A No. 3 Piper Messerly of DCG finished fourth, 3A No. 14 Elizabeth VandeVoort of Pella took fifth, 3A No. 22 Carleigh Altwine of Pella placed sixth and 3A No. 26 Ruth Dunham of Pella ended up seventh.

The other ranked runners were 4A No. 29 Addison Dooley of DCG and 2A No. 25 Keilah Schiebout of Pella Christian.

Cooper Christy and Lance Zaabel highlighted the Newton boys’ lineup. Christy placed 27th in 17:17.4 and Zaabel was 29th in 17:22.8.

Abel Aldama (19:04.5) was 39th, Drew Lamont (19:07.6) took 40th and Levi Zaabel (19:20.1) placed 42nd as the final scoring runners.

Noah Tremel (19:30.5) and David Wickett (19:44.1) were non-scoring runners in 43rd and 45th, respectively.

Class 4A No. 1 Indianola won the boys LHC title with 35 points. The Indians placed six runners in the top 20.

Class 4A No. 4 DCG (46) edged 4A No. 10 Norwalk (49) for second, and the rest of the field included 3A No. 2 Pella (96), 2A No. 6 Pella Christian (169), Oskaloosa (173) and Newton (177).

DCG put four runners in the top 10 and five were in the first 21 positions and Norwalk went 2-5-11-15-16-17.

Class 4A No. 8 Reed Robbins of Indianola won the boys’ race in 15:37.4. Class 4A No. 12 Teegan Kralik of Norwalk was the runner-up in 15:42.9.

Eight runners in the field appeared in the latest individual rankings. Class 3A No. 3 Caanan Dunham of Pella did not compete.

Class 4A No. 16 Graham Ibeling of DCG finished third, 4A No. 21 Sam Parker of Norwalk took fifth, 4A No. 15 Jack Meggison of DCG placed sixth and 4A No. 28 Paxton Bloom of Norwalk finished 10th.

The other two ranked runners were 3A No. 8 Mason Gaulke of Pella and 3A No. 24 Jonah Ebersole of Pella, and they placed 14th and 18th, respectively.

Notes: The Newton girls’ junior varsity was led by Meghan Trout (26:16.4) and Mia Van Zante (26:28) in 71st and 73rd, respectively. “(Van Zante) found her next gear at the end and got a well earned personal-best time,” Tipton said. … Chase Lundberg (20:32.8) and Hudson Swarts (21:37.9) highlighted the Newton boys’ JV team in 75th and 94th, respectively. “Once again, the JV finds themselves concluding a season which went by way too fast,” Weeks said. “I’m so proud of the progress they made. I want to thank seniors Ben Magaña, Tyler Thompson, and Grahm Clark for their contributions. They all were first-year seniors giving the sport a try.”