Newton girls run past pair of ranked teams in season opener at Marshalltown

MARSHALLTOWN — A trio of top-10 finishes powered the Newton girls cross country team to a runner-up finish on Thursday.

The Cardinals opened the season at the 14th Annual Marshalltown Early Bird Invitational and were better than a pair of ranked teams in the eight-team field.

“This is a very nice start to the season, and we know it will only get better,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said.

Newton scored 74 points in second. That was three points better than 2A No. 4 Pella Christian (77) and 19 in front of 2A No. 15 Grundy Center (93).

Class 3A No. 10 North Polk won the meet championship with 52 points.

North Mahaska (123) completed the top five and Marshalltown (142), Ottumwa (156) and Webster City (189) finalized the field.

Class 3A No. 12 Alexis Hergenreter won the girls’ 5K race in 20 minutes, 2.1 seconds.

The Cardinals placed three in the top eight, but nine Comets ended up in the top 20 and their five scoring runners were in the first 15.

Newton’s Audrey Muckler was the runner-up in 20:27.4. Alexis Sorensen made her Cardinal cross country debut and finished third in 20:53.4.

They both were faster than 2A No. 13 Grace Storjohann of Grundy Center (21:42.6), 1A No. 15 Emmerson Jedlicka of North Mahaska (22:34.2) and 2A No. 10 Bailey Vos of Pella Christian (22:34.2).

“(Muckler) and (Sorensen) looked fantastic and had strong second miles to pull away from the Grundy Center runners,” Tipton said. “(Talia Friedman) also had a stellar second mile to get ahead of the North Polk pack and help get the points needed for the team finish.”

Talia Friedman was the next finisher in eighth. Her time was clocked in 22:46.5. The other two scoring runners were Alivia Kingery (24:01) in 26th and Sarah Malow (25:57.6) in 39th.

Meghan Trout (26:31.5), Ashlyn Wallace (28:04.9), Laek Sullivan (28:40.1) and Mia Van Zante (29:04.8) were non-scoring runners in 41st, 45th, 48th and 49th, respectively.

“We talk about how it takes everyone, and it definitely shows when it comes down to single digits between places,” Tipton said. “It’s nice to get this first meet out of the way and know what to work on from here. I’m proud of how everyone raced tonight.

“After a cool start to the week, the heat returned just enough to be noticeable and affect a couple of the runners. Overall, though, they pushed through and most ran faster or comparable to the start of last season.”

Notes: Kayden Langston led the Cardinal junior varsity runners in 37th. She was clocked in 31:05.5. “Both (Layla Simon) and (Langston) debuted in the 5K and gave a great first effort,” Tipton said. “I’m looking forward to the progress they will make.”