Barton’s four wins lead Newton girls to fourth place at NCISC meet

GRINNELL — Harper Barton won two individual events and was part of both relay wins for the Newton girls swim team on Thursday.

But the Cardinals finished fourth in the seven-team field at the North Central Iowa Swim Conference meet at Grinnell College.

Boone won the conference title despite winning just one event. The Toreadors scored 325 points at the top of the standings and edged Decorah by 12 points. The Vikings were second despite winning a meet-high six events.

Grinnell (259) went 1-2-3 in diving and edged Newton (254) by five points and the rest of the field included Oskaloosa (167), Williamsburg (58) and Vinton-Shellsburg (13).

Barton posted career-best times in winning both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. Her time of 24.63 seconds won the 50 and is now tied for the sixth-best time in Iowa. She also won the 100 in 53.84 seconds, which ranks 12th in the state.

Both performances are under the state’s standard qualifying time.

The other wins came in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

Tori White, Temple Barton, Reid McCloud and Harper Barton won the 200 freestyle relay in 1 minute, 42.75 seconds. That’s currently the ninth-best time in the state.

The 400 freestyle relay team of McCloud, Temple Barton, White and Harper Barton won the race in 3:45.85, which ranks 10th in the state.

The Cardinals were fifth in the other relay. The 200 medley relay team of Emalee Weave, Alexa Van Maanen, Julia Nedder and Kimberlee Miller posted a time of 2:05.27 in fifth.

Both White and McCloud were second in a pair of individual events.

White finished second in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:22.31, and her season-best time of 1:03.28 netted her a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke.

McCloud finished second in the 200 freestyle with a career-best time of 2:01.21 and her career-best time of 5:25.99 also was second in the 500 freestyle.

Temple Barton also was fourth in the 100 freestyle (58.72) and fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:16.19), Nedder placed third in the 100 butterfly in a season-best 1:08.25 and Van Maanen (1:17.96) took sixth in the 100 breaststroke.

The final top-eight finish came from Weuve in the 200 freestyle as she was seventh in 2:19.69.

Baxter senior Camryn Russell led a 1-2-3 finish for Grinnell/BGM/Baxter in 1-meter diving. She won the conference title with a season-best score of 511.85. That’s the best score registered in Iowa so far.

Boone, which is ranked No. 14 in the Bound power rankings, won only one event but had two top-six divers and finished 4-5-6 in the 200 freestyle, 3-4 in the 200 IM, 3-5 in the 50 freestyle, 2-5 in the 100 fly, 1-5 in the 100 backstroke and 4-6-7 in the 500 freestyle. The Toreadors also placed second in the 200 medley relay.

No. 15 Decorah’s best event was the 100 breaststroke. The Vikings went 1-2 in that one.

Notes: Madison Scott competed in 1-meter diving and scored 29.9 points in her three exhibition dives. It was Newton’s first diver in five seasons.