Newton boys claim meet championship at Williamsburg

WILLIAMSBURG — Newton’s boys cross country team had a historic 2021 season that ended at the state meet in Fort Dodge. But they weren’t able to accomplish what the latest Cardinal squad did on Tuesday.

For the first time since head coach Steve Weeks took over the program, Newton won a meet championship.

South Tama County went 1-2 in the boys’ 5K race, but Newton placed its five scoring runners in the first 20 positions and edged the Trojans by eight points at the Williamsburg Raider Invitational inside the Williamsburg Sports Complex.

Newton’s average finishing time was 19 minutes, 7 seconds and the Cardinals’ spread from the top five scoring runners was 1:07.3.

“The depth of this varsity squad should help make us more competitive in more meets this year,” Weeks said. “I was impressed that we continue to stick to our discipline and run as a pack.”

The Cardinals won the meet with 67 points. South Tama (75), Oskaloosa (95), Benton Community (102) and Class 2A No. 20 Williamsburg (104) completed the top five.

Lynnville-Sully was sixth with 162 points and PCM (291) finished 11th in the 11-team field.

“It was a great first night of racing for the Hawks,” L-S head cross county coach Darin Arkema said. “The challenge now lies for everyone to take this first-meet experience and regardless of whether it was good or bad, the way they wanted or not, and use it to make adjustments to be better the next time out.”

After L-S, the rest of the top 10 included Springville (180), Montezuma (202), Davis County (204) and Belle Plaine (283).

Class 3A No. 7 Tommy Tyynismaa of South Tama won the race in 16:48.2. His teammate James Brant, who is ranked 14th in 3A, was the runner-up in 17:16.2.

The top area finisher was L-S’ James Gruver. He was fourth overall in 18:21.1. His teammates — Hendrick Lowry (18:54.1) and Zach Morningstar (19:16.1) — also medaled in 10th and 14th, respectively.

The top 15 finishers in each varsity race collected medals. Newton’s Landon Menninga was fifth overall in 18:27.8. Leo Friedman finished ninth with a time of 18:51.3.

The other three scoring runners for Newton were Collin Buchli (19:19.5), Christian Buchli (19:20.8) and Javin Doland (19:35.1) in 16th, 17th and 20th, respectively.

Presley Arnold (19:36.2) and Jesus Murillo (20:02.3) were 22nd and 26th, respectively, as non-scoring runners.

“A varsity squad is only as strong as their last scorer on the team,” Weeks said. “In years past we would have a fourth- and fifth-place teammate who would be lagging too far behind. But not this team.

“Ultimately, we are running as a team and we’re having fun. You can tell by how the guys act and how they talk about practice and races, they just like being around each other and running for this family.”

Menninga, Friedman and the Buchli brothers all registered season-best times.

So did Lance Zaabel, who placed third in the JV race with a time of 20:26.1. Asher Wood was 10th in a season-best 21:10.8. Newton’s JV was second in the team standings.

“The varsity team improved from last week where five runners improved and two had nearly identical times from our first meet,” Weeks said. “The JV saw time improvements from almost everyone.”

Lynnville-Sully’s final two scoring runners were Ethan Dunsbergen (24:28.6) and Evan Fikse (30:33) in 71st and 79th, respectively.

“We’re not going to be one of the largest teams out there in terms of how many athletes we have participating, but our kids are going to battle, contend and get the most out of themselves to be as competitive as they can be,” Arkema said.

Coby DeRaad led PCM in 35th. He finished the boys’ 5K race in a career-best 20:34.3.

Carson Taylor (22:44), Charlie Ford (23:52.3), Wyatt Vannoy (24:30.5) and Jacob Buys (30:33) were the final scoring runners in 64th, 69th, 72nd and 78th, respectively.

It was the season debut for Vannoy and the other four Mustang runners posted season-best times.