Ranked Cardinals place fourth at Williamsburg

WILLIAMSBURG — Newton’s boys cross country team cracked the state rankings for the first time under head coach Steve Weeks last week.

The first meet as a ranked program did not go as planned for Weeks and the Cardinals though.

Treycen Garton and Jackson Mace-Maynard both earned medals, but the Cardinals placed fourth in the team standings. The goal was top three.

“Ultimately we missed our goal,” Weeks said. “Given the teams that were there, we felt we should have finished third and the fourth we got was a bitter pill.”

There were 13 boys programs at the Williamsburg Recreation Center on Tuesday. And five of those teams are currently ranked.

Class 4A No. 12 Iowa City West won the meet with 55 points. Class 3A No. 9 Mount Vernon-Lisbon scored 71 as the runner-up and 2A No. 5 Williamsburg was third with 95.

Class 3A No. 18 Newton scored 114 points in fourth. The Cardinals did fare better than conference rival Oskaloosa (149), which finished fifth.

The rest of the field included South Tama County (153), 2A No. 8 Davis County (214), Benton Community (218), Vinton-Shellsburg (224), Lynnville-Sully (269), Isaac Newton Christian Academy (311), Alburnett (323) and Montezuma (360).

Garton was sixth in the boys’ 5K race. He finished in 17 minutes, 44.8 seconds. Mace-Maynard, who is ranked 24th in 3A, was seventh in 17:55.8.

“Our times at the varsity level were good starting points but much improvement is still needed to reach our goals,” Weeks said.

Lynnville-Sully’s James Gruver, a state qualifier in 2020, also earned a medal in 15th. He hit the finish line in 18:19.

“James had a terrific first race of his season with one of his better times ever,” L-S cross country coach Darin Arkema said.

The top 15 finishers in each varsity race earned medals.

After Garton and Mace-Maynard came Landon Menninga (19:10.2) in 26th. Collin Buchli (19:48) was 38th, Leo Friedman (20:02.1) placed 42nd as the final counting runner. Derek Beiner (20:10.8) and Hunter Kennedy (20:52.2) placed 45th and 61st, respectively.

“Treycen reclaimed the top spot on the team and you better believe that has people motivated everywhere on the team,” Weeks said. “Our JV, on the other hand, had an absolute stellar night. Jared Smith, who led the JV, earned himself a spot on varsity for our next meet in Grinnell. I’m excited for all of this close competition because that always pushes the next guy, and that travels all the way to the top. When guys are pushing each other, improvement follows.”

The fourth best area finisher was Lynnville-Sully’s Zach Morningstar, who placed 23rd in 19:00.5. Gentry Walston (21:33.9) was 70th, Vance Scholten (24:36.9) placed 91st and Evan Fikse (25:59.2) crossed in 96th for the Hawks.

“Zach was a full minute faster than a season ago at this race so his hard work through the summer is certainly paying dividends already,” Arkema said.

PCM also competed in the meet but did not have enough runners for a team score. Kyle Sanders (22:34.4) was 83rd and Carson Taylor (25:52.5) placed 94th.

Class 4A No. 5 Alexander McCane of Iowa City West won the race in 16:15. Class 3A No. 23 Patrick DeRonde of Oskaloosa was the runner-up in 17:13.