Hurdles, relays headline area girls at Newton Invitational

Newton’s first home track and field meet of the season featured some of the top female hurdlers in the state of Iowa.

The Cardinals and PCM Mustangs showed off that talent on Thursday night.

Newton won the shuttle hurdle relay and three Cardinals finished in the top six of the 100-meter hurdles as the home team finished third in the 13-team field at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

PCM’s night was highlighted by a season-best time in the shuttle hurdle relay and a trio of career-best performances.

ADM, one of the favorites to win the Class 3A title later this season, won the meet championship with 191 points. Pella, a likely contender for a top-five finish was second with 136 points.

Newton scored 88 points in third, Ames was fourth with 58 points and Oskaloosa (57), Grinnell (56) and PCM (50) were close behind in fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (24), South Tama County (24), the Newton JV (20), Saydel (11), Collins-Maxwell (8) and Knoxville (6) completed the field.

Ames did not bring its ‘A’ athletes as the Little Cyclones also had a meet in Iowa City. Other programs brought a small number of athletes for one final shot at Drake Relays qualifying.

Newton won a pair of events and registered eight top-three finishes.

In the 100 hurdles, Addy Terpstra won the race in 15.41 seconds, but JaQuay Priest finished fifth in 16.65 and Mack Sims (16.98) placed sixth in her varsity debut in the event.

PCM’s Morgan Karr was third with a career-best time of 15.72 seconds. EBF’s Molly Shafer was second in 15.61. Shafer ranks second and Karr is seventh in 2A. Terpstra, Shafer and Karr all will be in the field at next week’s Drake Relays, too.

The Cardinals were first and third in the shuttle hurdle relay. The ‘A’ team featured last year’s runner-up foursome for the first time this season and Priest, Macy Lampe, Chloe Rorabaugh and Terpstra finished in 1 minute, 7.54 seconds.

Newton’s second team of Sims, Tori White, Alyssa Beerends and Annie Main placed third in a very respectable time of 1:11.77.

PCM’s freshmen foursome of Tori Lindsay, Jorja Teeter, Lillian Humpal and Karr finished second in a season-best 1:09.13, which currently ranks sixth in 2A.

Newton finished second three times. Harper Barton ran a career-best time of 1:07.54 to place second in the 400 and the sprint medley and 4x800 relay teams also were second.

The sprint medley relay team of Lampe, Priest, Lola Rivera and Bella Winther finished in 2:02.03 and the 4x800 squad of Hadley Kruse, Kate Muckler, Briana Shannon and Barton completed the race in 10:26.22, which was a season-best time by 11 seconds.

The other two third-place finishes came in the 4x400 and 4x200 relays.

In the 4x200, the team of Brooklyn Shannon, Rivera, Lauren Clarke and Winther posted a time of 1:53.93.

The 4x400 relay group of Briana Shannon, Muckler, Brooklyn Shannon and Clark registered a time of 4:16.07, which was a season-best by eight seconds.

Kruse finished fourth in the 800 with a season-best 2:39.12, White was fifth in the high jump with a leap of 4 feet, 8 inches and Abby Bruce took sixth in the 200 with a season-best time of 28.8 seconds.

The 4x100 relay team placed fifth in a season-best time of 53.01 seconds. That group included Clarke, Rivera, Rorabaugh and Terpstra.

PCM’s Abi Teeter and Rylee Gallaher both placed third in an individual event. Gallaher took third in the shot put with a career-best toss of 36-8 and Abi Teeter finished third in the 3,000 with a career-best time of 11:48.21.

Lindsay scored a fourth-place finish in the 400 hurdles with a career-best time of 1:12.79.

The Mustangs also were fourth in the 4x100 and fifth in the 4x200 relays.

In the 4x100 relay, the team of Humpal, Jorja Teeter, Tiffani Koonce and Karr finished in 52.62 seconds and Stella Stravers, Ryan Bennett, Carly Steenhoek and Koonce completed the 4x200 in 1:59.95.

Notes: Four Cardinals posted career-best performances and finished just outside the top six. Main’s leap of 15-11 1/2 was a career-best in the long jump, Bruce ran a career-best 13.61 in the 100, Winther finished the 200 in a career-best 29.24 and Lampe’s 17.3 in the 100 hurdles also was a career-best.