Newton harriers compete in deep field at Wartburg

WAVERLY — The Steve Johnson/Dan Huston Invitational hosted by Wartburg College featured six of the best boys’ cross country teams in the state and four state-ranked girls’ squads.

The Newton Cardinals also made the trip on Saturday and tough competition on a hot day resulted in a 25th-place finish for the boys and a 34th-place mark for the girls.

“We definitely did not have ‘hot temps at Wartburg’ on our cross country bingo card,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “Proud of the team for still taking advantage of the expanded competition.”

The best individual finish came from Bella Winther in the girls’ 5K race. She placed 103rd in 22 minutes, 31.8 seconds.

That led the Cardinals to 34th with 926 points. Class 4A No. 3 Dubuque Hempstead won the girls’ title with 60 points. Class 3A No. 2 Gilbert (119), 2A No. 1 Mid-Prairie (201), 3A No. 6 Solon (225) and Mankato West (243) of Minnesota completed the top five. Norwalk was 31st with 754 points.

After Winther for Newton was Cameron Sharp, who placed 180th in a career-best time of 23:42.6.

Sarah Malow was 227th in a career-best 24:46.6, Meghan Trout finished 252nd in a career-best 25:20.4 and Paxton Panada secured a season-best time of 26:53.3 in 296th.

Abbie Preston (27:00.1) was 300th and Lauren Clarke (27:12.9) finished 303rd as non-scoring varsity runners. Alivia Kingery (27:45.8) and Lilian Wadsworth (22:32.5) also competed and finished 312th and 350th, respectively.

“The front runners all got out well and then hung tough to the end,” Tipton said. “It is especially exciting to see Cameron get below 24:00. Paxton, Abbie and Lauren, in her debut race and giving a big final kick, were all quintessential in breaking the tie with Columbus Junction by not only finishing but finishing ahead of their fourth- and fifth-place runners.”

Class 2A No. 1 Danielle Hostetler of Mid-Prairie won the girls’ race in 18:46.7. Class 4A No. 3 Nakia Olivierre of Waterloo West was the runner-up in 18:48.8.

There were 354 runners in the girls’ race and 432 runners in the boys’ competition.

“It was even warmer when the JV toed the line, and they were running just a minute behind the JV boys,” Tipton said. “So there was a lot of traffic to navigate. They all got it completed, which is a huge accomplishment.”

The Newton boys scored 711 points in 25th. Class 4A No. 10 Norwalk was sixth with 207 points and Indianola placed 15th with 445.

Class 4A No. 1 Cedar Falls won the boys’ team title with 102 points. The rest of the top five included 4A No. 3 Waukee Northwest (164), 3A No. 1 Gilbert (177), 4A No. 12 Urbandale (184) and 4A No. 13 Iowa City Liberty (206).

Javin Doland was the top Newton finisher in 122nd. He stopped the clock at 18:04.2.

Lance Zaabel was 139th in 18:14.3, Landon Menninga placed 155th in 18:26.2, Jesus Murillo ended up 165th in 18:30.8 and Christian Buchli took 187th in 18:52.7.

Presley Arnold (19:24.5) and Asher Wood (20:00.7) were 222nd and 258th, respectively, as non-scoring varsity runners.

Conner McPartlin (20:18.8) finished 274th, Nate Lamb (21:31) was 326th and Noah Tremel (23:16.6) placed 371st.

Manny Putz of Onalaska (Wisconsin) won the boys’ 5K race in 15:05.5 and David Obst of Kasson-Mantorville (Minnesota) was the runner-up in 15:37.1.