Newton boys medal in two events at state track meet

DES MOINES — Newton sophomore Christian Ergenbright is already thinking about next season.

The Cardinals’ 2023 boys’ track and field squad didn’t feature too many seniors. The only senior who participated in the state meet this weekend was Brody Bauer.

The rest of the state qualifiers can return, and that has Ergenbright feeling excited about next season.

“I don’t think they can count out what we did two years ago,” Newton head boys track and field coach Chad Garvis said. “We should be fighting for a team trophy next season. We could have four to six guys running 50-second splits in the 400. We can be solid in a lot of events with those times.”

The current crop of Cardinals left Drake Stadium after the Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships with a pair of medal-winning performances.

Freshman Caden Klein grabbed the first state medal when he finished seventh in the 400-meter hurdles on Friday. He then anchored Newton’s 4x400 relay team to a fifth-place finish on Saturday.

While some of the events did not produce the end result some of the Cardinals wanted, none of them were outside the top 15.

“We did well. They ran awesome,” Garvis said. “We ran our season-best time or second-best time in all five events.”

The 4x400 relay team of juniors Nate Lampe and Curtis Payne, Ergenbright and Klein ran a season-best time of 3 minutes, 24.13 seconds in the preliminary heat on Friday.

The foursome bettered that time with a 3:22.38 in the finals. In any other year, that may have produced a runner-up finish. This season, it was fast enough for fifth.

“It was a fast heat. I’m not sure if it was the warmer weather or what, but everyone ran crazy fast times,” Ergenbright said. “In every 400, I usually pass at least one person, but that didn’t happen in this one. He had a good kick at the end. I just couldn’t catch up to him.”

Mount Vernon won the 4x400 relay state championship with a time of 3:18.47. The next three finishers — North Polk (3:21.15), Western Dubuque (3:21.41) and Sergeant Bluff-Luton (3:21.44) — all posted times faster than 3:22.

“It was a fast heat,” Garvis said. “If you told me we ran a 3:22, I would have thought we finished second. We took six seconds off our best time in a short amount of time.”

Before Klein anchored the Cardinals to fifth in the 4x400, he took seventh in the 400 hurdles with a time of 55.98 seconds. Three runners had nearly identical times and Klein was second among that group.

Central DeWitt’s Tristan Rheingans won the Class 3A title in 53.33 seconds.

“The goal was to place and get top eight,” Klein said. “I was hoping to run a little better time, but the wind was tough out there today.”

Newton also was 11th in both the 4x200 and sprint medley relays and they placed 14th in the shuttle hurdle relay.

The shuttle hurdle was the Cardinals’ only event on Thursday. Newton finished in 1 minute, 2.35 seconds in 14th with Payne, Klein, sophomore Reilly Trease and Bauer.

The last team to qualify for the finals ran a 1:01.68. Cedar Rapids Xavier won the state title with a state meet record time of 58.94.

“So much is put into it just to be able to get here,” said Bauer, who ran on Newton’s shuttle hurdle relay team in 2021. “It honors the work we’ve put in and this is a good way to cap it off.

“I have mixed feelings. We ran our best time last meet so you think with the adrenaline, the crowd and being here that you can run faster. But at the same time, only 24 teams get here so we are grateful to be a part of that group. You can’t beat yourself up about it too much.”

The Cardinals opened Friday with an 11th-place finish in the 4x200 relay. The team of Payne, Lampe, Trease and Ergenbright had a time of 1:30.68, but it took a 1:30.22 to grab the final state medal.

Harlan won the state championship with a time of 1:28.20.

“We knew we were seeded in the middle and we thought we could do better than we did, but it is what it is,” Lampe said about his first experience at the state meet. “We gave it our all.”

Payne was the only returner who has a state medal. He earned that last year as an alternate on the distance medley relay team.

He earned a medal that he actually helped get this season though.

“It feels good to get my own,” Payne said. “We wanted a higher medal (in the 4x400), but we ran our best time. That feels good.”

Before grabbing the state medal in the 4x400, the Cardinals finished 11th in the sprint medley relay with a season-best time of 1:35.03.

That foursome featured freshman Nick Thomason, Trease, Ergenbright and Klein. Western Dubuque won the state title with a time of 1:32.31 and the final medal-winning performance was clocked in 1:34.41.

“I thought we ran well, and I felt good coming out of the blocks,” Thomason said. “I can’t be more proud of this relay team. We ran better than our district time.

“I had to watch the last two days from the stands and I tried to anticipate what I would have to do. All the anticipation was built up and once I finally got out here, and I got to see it for myself, it all went away.”

Notes: Junior Cody Klein couldn’t make it back from an injury to compete in his third state meet. Caden Klein hopes to team up with his brother on a few relays next season. “God has a plan. Cody wanted to run so bad,” Caden Klein said. “I wish he was here running with me, but it is what it is. He has soccer to think about, too. He’s got one more year so hopefully we can run together next year.”