Newton boys end cross country season at state qualifying meet

PELLA — Sometimes athletic competition can be cruel. Things don’t always go as planned.

Unfortunately, the Newton boys cross country team found that out the hard way on Wednesday.

Facing a field that included four state-ranked teams and six ranked individual runners, the Cardinals came up short of a state berth at Central College.

The top 15 individuals and the top three teams at each Class 3A state qualifying meet advanced to next week’s state meet.

Newton placed eighth as a team and Lance Zaabel was just one spot off a trip to Fort Dodge.

“I came up to him with tears in my eye, but I was happy to see him with a smile on his face,” Newton head cross country coach Steve Weeks said about Zaabel’s finish. “He knew he just ran a personal-best time on a rather difficult course. He was happy about that, but as a coach I want so much for him.”

The Cardinals scored 201 points in eighth. They trailed seventh-place Knoxville (196) by five and were better than Saydel (212), Creston (219), Fairfield (314), Clarke (359) and Boone (366).

Class 3A No. 2 Pella cruised to the team title with 28 points. The Dutch put all five scoring runners in the top 12.

Class 3A No. 10 ADM (91) was 12 points better than 3A No. 6 Clear Creek-Amana (103) in second and the rest of the top 13-team field included 3A No. 18 Carlisle (123), Cedar Rapids Xavier (141) and Oskaloosa (172).

“For us to finish eighth, that’s probably one of the lowest team placings we’ve had,” Weeks said. “I looked at personal-best times for all 92 runners, mapped it out, scored everyone and had Newton around 10th place. So I was bracing myself for that, but it was nice to get a few teams I knew we could get.”

Zaabel led the Cardinals with a 16th-place finish. He posted a career-best 5K time of 17 minutes, 7.69 seconds in his final prep race. The 15th and final state qualifier was clocked in 16:54.43.

Cooper Christy finished 23rd in 17:34.31, and the rest of the scoring runners were Abel Aldama (18:46.9), Levi Zaabel (19:14.93) and David Wickett (19:19.71) in 49th, 54th and 57th, respectively.

Drew Lamont (19:31.97) and Noah Tremel (20:00.46) were non-scoring runners in 62nd and 69th, respectively.

“The guys looked sad and frustrated, and that’s good because now we can focus on what we can do to fix this,” Weeks said. “What is the plan now? It’s 10 months away, but it goes by fast.”

Weeks said he discovered about midway through the season that qualifying as a team would be extremely difficult.

And advancing to state also became challenging after Weeks figured out that 20 runners in the boys’ race on Wednesday posted times in the 16s this season. That’s double the number of runners who did that last year.

“That gives you an idea of how difficult this district was,” Weeks said. “The goal was to keep dropping times and find other ways to have success.”

Class 3A No. 3 Canaan Dunham of Pella won the boys’ race in 15:13.69.

Class 3A No. 11 Carson Meskimen of CCA was the runner-up in 16:08.72. Class 3A No. 8 Mason Gaulke of Pella was third, 3A No. 24 Jonah Ebersole of Pella took fourth, 3A No. 13 Isaac Rankin of Knoxville placed fifth and 3A No. 21 Kael Streeter of Carlisle came in sixth.

The 3A boys state cross country race is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. on Oct. 31 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge.

Notes: Newton last ran on the Central College course during the Little Hawkeye Conference meet in 2021. … Lance Zaabel on the boys’ side and Audrey Muckler in the girls’ race both were 16th in a meet that takes the top 15 to the state meet. They did not take more than 15 runners in either race as there were at least five runners not on qualifying times who finished in the top 15. “It does stink to be 16th. To have two Newton kids finish 16th today was unfortunate,” Weeks said. “I hope it lights a fire under (Muckler) for next year to get back. It’s tougher for (Lance Zaabel) because this was it. Luckily, he does still have a track season. This should motivate him, but it does hurt.” … The only seniors who ran in Newton’s top seven on Wednesday were the Zaabel twins.