Six wins power Newton boys to third at LHC meet

GRIMES — Putting together a lineup for its Class 3A state qualifying meet next week wasn’t going to be easy anyway.

But after another night of impressive performances from the Newton boys track and field team, it may have just gotten a bit harder for head coach Chad Garvis and his coaching staff.

Pella won its 10th Little Hawkeye Conference title in the past 15 seasons, but the Cardinals won six events, grabbed 12 top-three finishes and set four conference meet records during the annual conference meet on Thursday.

There were 13 meet records set in total on the boys’ side and Pella’s latest championship featured 160.83 points. The Dutch and Cardinals both won six events.

Indianola registered three wins and scored 147.5 points in second, while Newton (115.5), Norwalk (106.83) and Dallas Center-Grimes (83) completed the top five and Pella Christian (21.33) and Oskaloosa (8) finalized the field.

It was a big night for Caden Klein, who won the 100- and 200-meter dash and placed second in the 400.

His career-best time of 10.67 seconds in the 100 edged Pella’s Harrison Mullens (10.68) for the win and his career-best 21.55 won the 200. Mullens was second in that one in 22.09.

Klein’s career-best 48.54 was second in the 400 with Mullens winning in 48.49.

Klein now ranks third in Class 3A in the 100 and Nick Thomason’s career-best 10.92 gave Newton double points in third. He has the 14th-best time in 3A.

Klein’s latest time in the 200 moves him to the top of 3A and Christian Ergenbright placed third in a career-best 22.15, which ranks 13th in 3A.

Klein is now fourth in 3A in the 400 and his 10.67 in the 100 and 21.55 in the 200 set new meet records, too.

The Cardinals also set new meet records in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

Ali Yahia, Ergenbright, Thomason and Klein finished the 4x400 in 3 minutes, 23.04 seconds. That ranks second in 3A and is a season-best time by 4 seconds.

The 4x200 relay team of Thomason, Reilly Trease, Yahia and Ergenbright won the race in 1:28.24. Newton owns the fastest 4x200 time in 3A, but the second-fastest time on Bound is 1:28.19.

Newton was third in two other relays and five events total.

The shuttle hurdle relay team of Austin Arauz, Drew Bauer, Cade Bauer and Trease finished the race in 1:00.45, which is their second-best time of the season.

Thomason, Trease, Ergenbright and Yahia teamed up in the sprint medley relay and placed third in 1:35.

The other two individual wins came in field events. Isaiah Hansen produced a huge career-best mark in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 4 inches. That was a personal-best by four inches, and it ranks tied for ninth in 3A.

Cade Bauer finished outside the top six despite a career-best mark of 6-0.

Nick Milburn and Koltt Ahn went 1-4 in the shot put. Milburn’s winning throw covered 55-7 1/4 and Ahn posted a career-best toss of 46-4 1/4.

Bauer and Zach Felten placed sixth in the 400 hurdles and discus, respectively, despite career-best performances in both events. Bauer completed the 400 hurdles in 57.02 seconds and Felten reached 148-1 in the discus.

Notes: Indianola placed second in the team standings despite only winning three events. The Indians were 1-2 in the discus and set a new meet record in the 4x100 (42.57). … Pella’s Canaan Dunham set new meet records in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 to lead the Dutch to the team championship. Pella (1:32.97) set a meet record in the sprint medley relay and Dunham’s meet record times were 1:58.03 in the 800, 4:15.93 in the 1,600 and 9:32.50 in the 3,200.