Newton boys finish fifth at 3A state qualifier

PELLA — Landon Menninga smashed his career-best time at the Class 3A state qualifying meet on Wednesday.

But the boys’ 5K field included three teams ranked in the top seven and seven individually ranked runners and that depth kept the Cardinal junior from his second state berth.

Menninga missed out on the state meet by less than a second. His career-best time did lead the Cardinals to a fifth-place finish in the 13-team field though.

“I’m insanely proud of Landon. That was his best time ever and he keeps climbing the all-time leaderboard of Newton High School,” Newton boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “He’s getting closer to the top 10.”

Menninga’s personal-best time of 16 minutes, 57.64 seconds netted him a 16th-place finish. The top 15 finishers clinched a spot in next week’s state cross country meet. The final qualifying time was 16:56.99.

“The state didn’t do anyone any favors by putting No. 1, No. 3 and No. 7 at the same site,” Weeks said. “Those teams stole most of the bids. We only had two individuals qualify who weren’t on one of the top three teams.”

The top three teams were 3A No. 1 Pella, 3A No. 3 Winterset and 3A No. 7 Carlisle.

The Dutch won the district title with 21 points after placing all seven runners in the top 15 and putting their top five in the first nine positions.

Winterset scored 52 points in second and Carlisle (76) was third. The rest of the 13-team field included Nevada (136), Newton (156), Oskaloosa (183), Grinnell (198), Ballard (213), Benton Community (244), Bondurant-Farrar (252), Knoxville (289), Iowa Falls-Alden (354) and Des Moines Hoover (363).

“It was a dogfight for 4-5-6-7 for the team places,” Weeks said. “Nevada was ranked at points this year, we started the year ranked and we got them at our meet. I think they may have been missing someone though. We knew fourth place was reasonable.”

Class 3A No. 5 Chase Lauman of Pella won the boys’ 5K race in 15:36.22 and ninth-ranked Canaan Dunham of Pella was the runner-up in 15:37.6. The other five ranked runners were in the top eight.

Menninga was near the top 15 for the entire race. His previous best time was 17:14.

Leo Friedman was next for Newton in 28th with a time of 17:42.13. Javin Doland finished 30th with a personal-best time of 17:45.89 and the final two scoring runners were Jesus Murillo (personal-best 18:00.52) and Presley Arnold (18:20.18).

Murillo and Arnold finished in 37th and 45th place, respectively.

The two non-scoring runners were Collin Buchli (18:39.98) and Christian Buchli (18:40.4) in 55th and 56th, respectively.

“The guys should feel sad and feel frustrated but when the time passes, we need to move on and get ready for next year,” Weeks said. “They need to let this day drive them.”

The Cardinals will lose Friedman and Collin Buchli to graduation. Weeks couldn’t ask for two better individuals.

“They were pivotal in us qualifying for state last year,” Weeks said. “They improved all season, and it stinks that things outside of our control diminished all the gains they had.

“Leo dropped almost a minute from his times last year and Collin battled through his knee injury that he’s had forever. He was still a solid varsity runner despite that.”