Cards crowned 3A champs

DES MOINES — Caden Klein is the headliner on a track and field team which won two gold medals and grabbed three silvers at this year’s Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships.

But he’s not the only Cardinal who flew around the blue oval this past weekend inside Drake Stadium.

The Newton boys track and field team proved that on Friday when a foursome that didn’t include Klein won the 4x200-meter relay.

Those 10 points jumpstarted Newton into the Class 3A title conversation, and Klein finished the deal with a gold-medal performance in the 200 dash.

“A lot of people who don’t know us think all of our success comes from (Klein) being on the relays,” Newton junior Nick Thomason said. “We just showed we’re able to prove them wrong and do it without him.”

The Cardinals proved a lot of doubters wrong throughout the weekend. And it culminated with the program’s first-ever boys state track and field championship.

Newton finished the weekend with 60 points, which was four points better than rival Pella (56) and five points clear of both Gilbert (55) and Clear Creek-Amana (55). Western Dubuque, the defending 3A champion, was fifth with 53 points.

“Our guys performed well all weekend and kept a positive attitude,” Newton head boys track and field coach Chad Garvis said. “Even when things went wrong, we came right back and won the 200 and then got big points in the 4x100. Those were huge points at the end of the day that we needed to stay in it.”

Things weren’t always positive. And Saturday’s up-and-down day included a pair of results Newton’s two captains would like to have back.

But the Cardinals overcame any adversity over the weekend with bounce-back performances that resulted in the school’s first team title since boys golf in 1993.

Klein scored 21 points in his three individual events, but the sixth-place finish in the 100 put the Cardinals in a tough spot with a few events to go.

Reilly Trease also had a race he wants back in the 110 high hurdles.

Both captains took advantage of their final performances of the weekend on the blue oval though.

Klein sprinted to a gold medal in the 200 and Trease was part of Newton’s runner-up finish in the 4x100 relay.

Nick Milburn collected nine points in his two field events on Thursday and Friday. The fifth-place finish in the shot put was expected by most but he grabbed five big points on the first day following a fourth-place finish in the discus.

“When times got the toughest, we were able to show up and move past it. We faced adversity well,” Garvis said. “That’s how they are all the time.”

The first five points on the board came from Milburn in the discus. He opened the day with a career-best throw of 165 feet, 5 inches. That put him in first after the Flight 1 and he bettered it with a toss of 165-8 in the finals.

Milburn also had throws of 155-6 and 164-1. CCA’s Landon Prince won the discus with a toss of 181-4 and the eighth and the final medal came on a throw of 158-4.

Prince won both throwing events as he took the shot put title on Friday with a toss of 60-9 1/4. There were three shot put throws that surpassed 57 feet.

Milburn was fifth with a toss of 53-11 3/4. His best throw in the prelims went 53-2 3/4. His best throw overall came on his final attempt and it moved him from seventh to fifth. That’s gave his team four points instead of two.

“I’ll take it. I obviously want to hit a PR every time, but I never seem to throw my best here,” Milburn said. “My form was just a little bit off.”

While many outside of the program didn’t expect Milburn to place in the discus, the Cardinal sophomore had other plans.

“I expected this from myself. I hit a big one on my first throw,” Milburn said. “That felt good. I worked a lot this week on speeding up the spin and it worked well today.”

Newton’s first win came in the 4x200 relay on Friday. The team of Thomason, Trease, Ali Yahia and Christian Ergenbright won the race in a school-record time of 1 minute, 26.45 seconds. Gilbert, which had a big day on Saturday to climb into a trophy position, was the runner-up in 1:27.29 and Waverly-Shell Rock finished third in 1:27.49.

“This was one of the most nerve wracking races I’ve ever had,” Ergenbright said. “There was a lot of variables. The biggest thing was handoffs. Those can change the whole race and they were perfect today. That’s why we were able to run our best time.”

Yahia replaced Klein in the 4x200 relay, and performed admirably in the role. He took the handoff from Trease and Ergenbright shifted to the anchor.

The same four ran on the 4x100 relay team. They posted the fastest qualifying time in Friday’s prelims at 42.32 and finished second on Saturday in 42.08. Gilbert won the race in 41.94.

“We knew we were chasing a state championship right there, and we put ourselves in a great position to win that championship,” Ergenbright said.

Newton entered the final two events on top of the team standings. The second-place finish in the 4x100 gave the Cardinals an eight-point lead over Pella with only the 4x400 remaining.

The Dutch could have claimed the 3A title with a win in the final event, but a second-place finish would have still allowed them to share the championship.

But a slow start forced Pella to the back of the field, and the Dutch could only rally to fifth.

Trease helped Newton grab eight points in the 4x100 despite placing a disappointing seventh in the 110 high hurdles. He was third in the prelims with a career-best time of 14.32 seconds. He ran 14.80 in the finals after clipping the first three hurdles.

“It’s tough to come back from it. You want to go pout, but it’s not all about me,” Trease said. “It’s about the team. I scored some points in the event, and every point matters. I had my moment, came back around and was able to flush it.

“Any time you step on to the track you want to win, but the eight points were huge for the team race.”

Klein qualified for the finals in the 100 and 200 on Thursday and then got on the scoreboard with a runner-up finish in the 400 hurdles on Friday.

Klein ran a career-best and school-record time of 51.96 to place second. It took a state meet record and No. 2 time all time performance for Center Point-Urbana’s Nathan Miller (51.04) to best him.

“It’s awesome to run against the second-fastest guy of all-time and maybe I can do something like that next year,” Klein said. “I liked the time, and obviously you want to win, but I’m very happy with how it went.

Klein was in third most of the way before rallying past Knoxville’s Koby Higginbotham in the final 50 meters. Higginbotham was the runner-up in the 110 high hurdles on Saturday.

“The 400 hurdles is a weird race,” Klein said. “You have really good hurdlers who can run 400s and you have 400 runners who can do hurdles. (Higginbotham’s) a really good hurdler so his form over the first 300 was better and that’s why he had the lead. Just the 400 speed and running it more allowed me to finish better. He’s a great competitor and an awesome guy.”

The Cardinals opened Saturday with a runner-up finish in the sprint medley relay. The quartet of Thomason, Trease, Ergenbright and Klein won the event last year but was edged out by CPU this time around after another huge 400 split from Miller.

Newton’s school-record time of 1:30.77 would have been a state meet record had it not been for CPU finishing the race in 1:30.53. The Cardinals posted the fifth-best Iowa time ever though.

Klein qualified fifth in the 100 with a time of 10.73 on Thursday. He posted a time of 10.88 in sixth on Saturday.

Nevada’s Connor Kunze won the 100 in 10.57. The final three times in the final were Klein’s 10.88 as well as a 10.89 and a 10.9.

Every state championship comes with a little bit of fortune. And Klein was given that in the 200 final when Nevada’s Kunze was scratched from the lineup.

Kunze (21.44) edged Klein (21.61) for the top qualifying time in the prelims. Klein took advantage of Kunze’s absence in the final and won his first individual gold medal with a blazing fast time of 21.58. He edged Keokuk’s Ryan Bair (21.59) to win the gold.

“Coming up short in the sprint medley, I just wanted to find a way to get one of the next two,” Klein said. “Otherwise, I would have been disappointed.

“I didn’t see anyone out there the whole time but I looked down the line at the finish and saw the Keokuk kid. Once I saw my name, the blood started pumping and a huge sense of joy just went through my body.”

Kunze’s scratch also allowed Ergenbright to move up to a guaranteed seventh in the 200 final. He qualified eighth for the final with a time of 22.09 and then ran 22.33 in the final.

Those 12 points put the Cardinals back into the mix for the team championship.

“Caden’s win in the 200 was a reset for us, and it fired up the boys for the 4x100,” Garvis said. “It went well from there. As soon as we got positive momentum back, we were able to finish it off.

“Those extra points from Christian in the 200 were huge, too.”

Isaiah Hansen kicked off Newton’s weekend with a tie for 16th in the high jump. His best jump was marked at 5-11. Five jumpers tied for sixth at 6-1 and Benton Community’s Eli Patterson won the state title with a leap of 6-7.

Lance Zaabel’s first state appearance came in the 3,200 relay. He was 16th with a career-best time of 10:11.76.

“I’m really happy with it. It was really fun,” Zaabel said. “My goal is to get under 10 minutes in the two mile next season.”

Thomason ran a 10.94 in the 100 prelims but needed a 10.84 to make the finals. He placed 12th overall.

The Cardinals’ shuttle hurdle relay team placed 21st on time but moved up to 13th after eight teams were disqualified. The foursome of Cade Bauer, Josh Lampe, Drew Bauer and Austin Arauz posted a time of 1:03.08.

It took a 1:00.7 to advance to the finals and CCA won the race in 57.49.

“We didn’t perform as well as we would have liked,” Cade Bauer said. “I also wouldn’t wish a DQ on anyone. We know how bad that feels.”

Arauz competed with Trease in the 110 hurdle prelims on Friday and finished 23rd in 15.78.

Alameen Shanto was in the long jump on Friday morning and finished 16th with a leap of 20-2 1/2. It took a 20-7 1/2 to make the finals and Waverly-Shell Rock’s Rylan Peters won the event with a jump of 22-6 1/4.

Cade Bauer joined Klein in the 400 hurdles. And he produced an 11th-place finish in his final prep race. Cade Bauer was clocked in a career-best 55.56. He started the season in the 60s.

“I think running against strong competition helped me go faster than I’ve ever gone before,” Cade Bauer said. “All Glory to God. The 400 hurdles is all mental. How hard are you willing to go? Breaking that 60 barrier was huge. Once I got out of my head, I was able to bring down my time.”

Garvis and his coaching staff had tough decisions to make with Klein and the relays. They tried to put together a lineup that would give them the best chance to win the title.

While things didn’t go completely as planned, the end result was what everyone involved in the decision had in mind.

“It was a roller coaster day. We had to make a lot of tough decisions when it came to the lineup,” Garvis said. “Obviously you can look back and question what you did, but I thought it was the best decisions for our team at the time.”

Garvis said Klein was on board with running three individual events. It did allow the Cardinals to score more points.

“We put a lineup together we thought was the best to compete for a championship and it worked out well,” Klein said. “After the 100 and 110 highs, we thought it might not be worth it. But by the end, it was totally worth it. It was awesome.

“I was more nervous for the 4x200 than I was for my own events. I was sweating bullets. It was a huge decision. I knew they could win it without me. They just had to believe that. They were able to pull it off, and I’m so happy for them.”

Notes: Iowa assistant football coach Seth Wallace had a front-row seat for Milburn’s fourth-place throw in the discus. “There’s no offer yet, but they are interested,” Milburn said. “I know that much. I’ve gone up there a lot and have talked to them a lot. It’s been a good relationship.” … Trease said he started walking over to get his blue championship flag when he saw Ergenbright had the lead on the final leg of the 4x200 relay. “This was the biggest race of Ali’s life and he ran like he’s been here before,” Trease said. “(Ergenbright) is a finalist in the 200 so once he had the lead, I felt great.” … The shuttle hurdle relay brings back three of their four runners from this year’s quartet. “The shuttle hurdle team didn’t run our best race, but we have three coming back and it gives us hope for next year,” Arauz said. … Yahia admitted to feeling pressure replacing Klein for the 4x200. “I did feel a little pressure, but to step up like that was amazing,” Yahia said. “Winning a title is awesome. I don’t know how to describe it.” … Western Dubuque’s Quentin Nauman became the first Iowa athlete to finish the 3,200 in under 9 minutes, complete the 1,600 in under 4 minutes and go under 1:50 in the 800 in the same state meet.