March 29, 2024

Shannon leads Newton girls track to fourth at Ottumwa

Cardinals score five top-three finishes in relays

OTTUMWA — Alyssa Shannon ran to a pair of wins and Newton’s girls track and field team registered eight top-three finishes at the Don Newell Classic on Tuesday.

The Cardinals were fourth in the team standings with 78 points. Shannon scored 20 of those points on wins in the 800- and 1,500-meter runs. Addy Terpstra was part of three top-three finishes and scored 11.5 points.

Iowa City West won the team championship with 169.5 points. Pella was next with 125 and the rest of the top five included host Ottumwa (93), Newton (78) and Knoxville (44.5).

The eight-team field also featured Fairfield (43), Burlington (26) and the Ottumwa JV (1).

Shannon won the 800 in a career-best time of 2 minutes, 19.65 seconds. That’s currently tied for 17th in the state. The top 16 times qualify for next week’s Drake Relays.

Shannon also won the 1,500 in a time of 5:15.92.

Terpstra was second in the 100 hurdles. She finished in 15.68 seconds and the winner was clocked in 15.67.

Bella Winther registered a pair of fifth-place finishes. She was fifth in the 400 in 1:05.42 and took fifth in the 800 in a career-best 2:41.62.

The Cardinals tallied four sixth-place finishes. Three of those were in field events as Emma Rogers was sixth in the long jump with a leap of 13 feet, 10 inches, Jayden Lukefahr finished sixth in the discus with a season-best toss of 92-7 1/2 and Tierney Adams placed sixth in the shot put with a season-best heave of 32-4 1/4.

The final sixth-place finish came from Gracie Clayton. She earned that tally in the 400 hurdles but her official time was unknown at press time.

Newton recorded three runner-up finishes and had two thirds in relays.

In the shuttle hurdle relay, the foursome of Macy Lampe, Rogers, Chloe Rorabaugh and Terpstra were second in 1:09.93.

The foursome of Grace Benson, Hadley Kruse, Kate Muckler and Peyton Ray were second in the 4x800 relay with a time of 10:53.71.

The final runner-up tally came in the distance medley relay. The team of Maggie Williams, Clayton, Taylor Schilling and Kruse hit the finish line in 4:48.38.

The 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams were third.

In the 4x100, the foursome of Lolo Rivera, JaQuay Priest, Rorabaugh and Terpstra finished in 53.05.

The 4x400 team included Abby Smith, Schilling, Benson and Kruse and they finished in 4:42.06.