Relays headline Newton girls at state meet

DES MOINES — Seniors Lola Rivera and Abby Bruce proved themselves worthy of a spot on varsity relay teams that have qualified for the state track and field meet the past four seasons.

They’ve been a part of the ups and downs a program goes through each season but finally broke through on the blue oval this past weekend.

After being good enough to qualify for state but not quite fast enough to earn a state medal in their first three seasons, Rivera and Bruce capped their high school careers with a pair of top-eight finishes at the Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships.

“We didn’t know we were in medal contingency until the final few weeks, but it became our top goal eventually,” Rivera said. “To be able to come home with two medals is great.

“We’ve proved ourselves as freshmen and were able to stay on the relays all four years. It means a lot to share these medals with her.”

The Cardinals brought back state medals in five events this weekend. Lauren Clarke was a part of three medal-winning performances, while Rivera, Clarke, Tori White and Camryn Klein brought back two state medals.

The top finisher for the weekend was White, who tied for fifth in the high jump. She finalized her season with a leap of 5 feet, 2 inches.

White cleared 4-10, 5-0 and 5-2 on her first attempt before missing all three attempts at 5-4.

North Polk’s Reese Wagner (5-8) dethroned two-time state champion London Warmouth (5-7) of ADM for the high jump title.

“It’s been an up and down year. And it’s in the back of my mind that I won’t perform to the best of my ability,” White said about her roller coaster season. “But those other meets don’t matter at this point. I’ve been training the whole season for this. I know what I’m capable of and blocked out the negative vibes. I had a good warm up jump at 4-10. I backed up after my first miss in warmups and then started out strong. I got on a little roll.”

The next best finish came in the 4x200-meter relay. The Cardinals broke their own school record with a time of 1 minute, 43.3 seconds and finished sixth with Klein, Rivera, Bruce and Clarke. Marion won the event in 1:41.03.

“It felt fast. The handoffs were smooth,” Bruce said. “We knew we were going to kill it.”

Bruce had to go straight to the long jump after the 4x200 and didn’t get any warm-up attempts before starting the competition.

That no doubt affected her performance as she was 17th with a leap of 15-11 1/4. It took a 16-7 to advance to the finals.

Clear Lake’s Reese Brownlee defended her title with a leap of 19-0 1/2.

“I came straight from the 4x200, put on my jumping spikes and then went right into long jump without any warmup,” Bruce said. “I think it hurt me a little bit. My first jump was my warmup and then I scratched on my second jump. I think I could have done better on the third jump, but I was so irritated by then that it threw me off. It’s Ok. I liked the experience.”

The first event of the weekend came in the shuttle hurdle relay, an event that has been both kind and cruel to the Cardinals in the past few seasons.

After finishing with the second-fastest time in the finals before being disqualified last season, Newton advanced to the finals again this spring.

The foursome of Klein, Macy Lampe, Mack Sims and White posted a time of 1:06.35 in the prelims. That was the third-best qualifying time. It took a 1:08.64 to make the finals.

“Just getting to finals is awesome,” Sims said. “This group of girls is amazing. I love these girls. I’m sad we’re losing (Lampe), but we’ll come back stronger than ever next season. It wasn’t a DQ this year. We’re moving up.”

The Cardinals were not disqualified in the finals on Saturday, but a fall pushed the foursome down to seventh. They posted a time of 1:07.8. ADM repeated as champions with a state-meet record time of 1:01.15. That was 4 seconds faster than runner-up West Delaware.

“We accomplished so much this year,” Lampe said. “We reached the finals. It’s unfortunate how it ended, but I’m still proud of this team.”

Lampe has been a part of four state-qualifying shuttle hurdle relay teams. In her four seasons, Newton has won the title, finished third, placed seventh this season and was disqualified last season.

“It’s a hurdle race with multiple ways for things to go wrong,” Lampe said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happened today.”

Klein hit one of her final hurdles on the team’s first leg of the relay and the team couldn’t recover. But three members of the team are back next season.

“I’m glad we medaled, but I feel bad for falling,” Klein said. “I wanted to do my best for the team. It can happen in hurdles though.”

Clarke competed in the 100 and 200 prelims on Thursday. She was seventh in the 200 prelims in 25.17 seconds and then posted a time of 12.46 in the 100.

The top eight times in the two events advanced to Saturday’s final and Clarke was 11th in the 100. It took a 12.46 to get into the top eight.

In the 200 finals, Clarke placed eighth in 25.95.

The Cardinals also competed in the 4x800 relay on Thursday. The team of Harper Barton, Sarah Malow, Alex Riney and Bella Winther placed 19th in a season-best time of 10:01.37.

“It was exciting. I felt a lot of pressure, but as soon as I got the baton from Sarah I felt a weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Riney said. “I was less nervous.”

It was the first state meet appearance for both Riney and Malow. Barton and Winther were on the same 4x800 relay two seasons ago.

“I’m blessed to be here with girls who are so experienced and we can do it together,” Malow said. “This is one of the toughest races I’ve ever been in. There’s a lot of talented teams here.”

Barton was emotional after the race. It was the final time she gets to compete on the same relay team as Riney and Winther.

“That’s sad, but it felt good to be back here,” Barton said. “I took it for granted being here after that first year. Not getting here last year hurt, and I didn’t want to feel that again.”

It took a 9:47.24 to earn a state medal in the 4x800 relay and Gilbert won the race in 9:14.6.

White and Lampe competed in the prelims of the 100 hurdles on Friday morning. White posted a career-best time of 15.56 in ninth and Lampe was 22nd in 16.18.

White’s 15.56 was faster than the time she ran last season when she reached the finals and placed seventh.

“I never thought I would go 15.5 at the start of the season,” White said. “I came up just short, which should push me even harder for next year.”

The 4x200 relay followed a few hours later on Friday and the girls finished sixth out of Lane 8.

“All of our hard work paid off today,” Rivera said. “We knew medaling was a possibility so running our best time was going to help us get there.

“We don’t mind lane eight. We just made the best of it. If we go fast, it doesn’t matter what lane we’re in. “

The sprint medley relay kicked off Saturday’s busy day and the Cardinals finished eighth in a season-best time of 1:49.16. That quartet included Alivia Conley, Bruce, Rivera and Clarke. Clear Lake won the race in 1:45.39.

“I was really nervous,” Conley said. “Once I got on the track it felt like another meet. It feels great to medal. I feel blessed and grateful.”

It was Conley’s first state meet. Her hand off with Bruce on the first exchange was not the best, but the Cardinals were able to overcome it.

“I was anticipating her to be a little slower actually,” Bruce said. “If I was a freshmen, I would have beat myself up about it. It was my fault. She did her part. Thankfully, it didn’t hurt us too bad.”

Winther’s final prep race came in the 800. She posted a career-best time of 2:24.99 in 20th.

A 2:17.2 was needed to grab the final state medal. Gilbert’s Keira Anderson won the race in 2:13.88.

Winther made one final pass near the finish line to move up in the standings and she went under 2:25 for the first time in her career.

“Last year, I came here and didn’t perform how I was capable of or how I wanted to,” Winther said. “I didn’t even think I made it at districts, but to come back here and get a revenge race is incredible.

“I wanted to be better than what I came in at and have a better time than what I’ve been running. I’ve been trying to get that PR all season and to do it at state was amazing.”

The Cardinals finished 23rd in the final Class 3A standings and scored 10 points. ADM won the team championship with 60 points. The rest of the top five featured Mount Vernon (58), Gilbert (58), Marion (50) and Clear Lake (49).

Notes: Klein didn’t think she’d get a state medal at the start of the season but credits better handoffs at state as a reason why things turned for Newton. “Handoffs felt good,” Klein said. “I reached a ton in the past few meets, but this one was better.” … Clarke said she wanted to make sure her 4x200 relay team didn’t just settle for eighth because she knew they had more in them despite running in the outside lane. “We knew we could place. I kept telling them we can get better than eighth,” Clarke said. “I didn’t want to just settle for eighth. Lane 8 isn’t ideal, but I’ve had good races out of that lane. It is what it is.”