Six victories push Newton girls track to second at outdoor opener

BOONE — Six wins and 16 top-three finishes powered the Newton girls’ track and field team to a runner-up finish on Thursday.

The Cardinals opened their outdoor season at the Boone High School Girls Invitational and posted three individual wins and a trio of relay victories.

“What a perfect night for some track and field,” Newton girls head track and field coach Rachelle Tipton said. “The team took advantage and got the outdoor season started right.”

Newton opened its night with a strong showing in field events, led by Tori White. She posted a career-best leap of 5 feet, 5 inches to win the high jump and Bella Winther was third with a jump of 4-8 in her high school debut.

The Drake Relays Blue Standard height in the event is 5-6.

White also won the 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 16.43 seconds and Chloe Rorabaugh was second in 16.92.

The other individual win came from Winther, who won the 400 in a career-best 1 minute, 3.06 seconds.

The Cardinals’ relay wins came in the shuttle hurdle, sprint medley and 4x400.

The shuttle hurdle team featured Mack Sims, Macy Lampe, White and Rorabaugh and they won the race in 1:09.73.

The sprint medley relay team featured Rorabaugh, Alivia Conley, Lola Rivera and Lauren Clarke and they won the race in 1:53.73.

Alex Riney, Winther, Hailey Dickerson and White ended the night with a win in the 4x400 relay. That foursome posted a time of 4:31.97.

Newton piled up seven runner-up finishes.

The Cardinals were 2-3 in the 400 hurdles with Gracie Clayton and Sims and they finished in 1:16.2 and 1:17.41, respectively.

Clarke was the runner-up in the 100, and she posted a career-best time of 13.0.

Rivera placed second in the 200 with a career-best time of 28.41 and Winther ran a career-best 28.75 to win the JV race.

Peyton Ray and Alivia Kingery finished third and fifth, respectively, in the 1,500. Ray finished the race in 5:55.21 and Kingery posted a time of 6:24.72.

Cameron Sharp (2:59.68) was fourth in the 800, while Meghan Trout (13:57.33) finished fourth in the 3,000.

Newton collected five more top-six finishes in the field events.

Clarke and Conley were 4-5 in the long jump with marks of 14-3 and 14-2, respectively.

Brooke Garvis had a career-best throw of 28-0 to place her in a tie for fourth in the shot put, while her career-best toss of 79-8 in the discus netted her a sixth-place finish.

Addie Hammerly also competed in the throwing events and her career-best heave of 87-2 1/2 in the discus earned her a fifth-place finish.

“The field events helped set the tone for the night,” Tipton said. “The momentum continued on the track and made for an exciting night and too many awesome performances to get them all highlighted.”

The Cardinals also were second in the distance medley, 4x100 and 4x800 relays.

Dickerson, Riney, Sharp and Abbie Preston finished the 4x800 relay in 11:41.23. Conley, Clayton, Dickerson and Ray posted a time of 4:58.57 in the distance medley relay and the foursome of Lampe, Clarke, Clayton and Rivera finished the 4x100 relay in 53.62 seconds.

“We’re starting to eye some events to make a run at Drake so we need the weather to keep cooperating and the athletes to keep at it,” Tipton said.