PLEASANT HILL — Ten Newton Senior High cross country athletes earned medals in their first meet of the 2013 season Tuesday. The Cardinal athletes ran in the Southeast Polk Invitational.
Newton’s girls finished fourth as a team in both the freshman-sophomore race and the junior-senior girls’ 4K race. Sophomore Grace Coen won the race in 15 minutes, 20 seconds to lead the Cardinals.
The Cardinal girls scored 103 points in the junior-senior division with Ankeny winning the team title with 39 points. Southeast Polk won the girls’ freshman-sophomore team tile with 43 points, just ahead of Ankeny with 48. Newton’s girls posted 117 points.
Newton’s freshman and sophomore boys claimed fourth with 96 points in their division. Ankeny won the team title with 31 points. Newton did not field a full team in the boys’ junior-senior race, which Southeast Polk won with 45 points.
Junior Christian Laube posted a fourth-place finish for the Cardinal junior and senior boys. Laube earned an individual medal with his time of 18:31 in the 5K race.
Justin Simms was 29th in 21:13, Grant Osborn placed 53rd in 22.23 and Jacob Arrowood was 74th in 25:29. All three are juniors.
In the freshman-sophomore boys’ 5K race, Newton had three medal winners. The Cardinals were led by sophomore Jwan Roush, who finished fifth in 19:38. Freshmen Justin Fischer and Josh Ventling were 18th and 25th, respectively, earning medals in 22:49 and 23:03.
Chase Dystra placed 26th in 23:03 and Zach Theis was 31st in 23:46. Both are sophomores. Freshman Gage Bakalar was 60th in 30:42.
“We were excited to have four medal in the first meet of the season,” said Tom Bartello, NHS boys’ cross country head coach. “It is hard to get a good feel for where they are at as a team when our varsity lineup will be made up of a mixture of upper and lower classes. We still have some work to do as team and as individuals, but everyone showed up and ran hard for our first meet.”
For the Cardinal girls, freshman Ellie Horn picked up a medal in the freshman-sophomore race for 18th place. Horn was Newton’s No. 2 runner behind Coen, finishing the 4K race in 19:19. Sophomore Sara Cook placed 35th in 22:16 followed by freshmen Jordyn Soule in 38th in 22:32, Michaella Cope in 42nd in 23:34 and Serna Halferty in 49th in 26:33.
Junior Hailey Coy paced the Cardinal girls in the junior-senior race. She captured the eighth-place medal in 18:06. The Cardinals had a three-runner pack in sophomore Amber Knight and juniors Autumn Hunt and Anna Barr. All three earned medals. Knight was 17th in 18:56 followed by Hunt in 21st in 19:21 and Barr in 24th at 19:35.
Junior Marisa Modlin ran 48th in 22:47 and senior Halie Doland, was 55th in 23:08.
“We had a number of girls improve their times from this course last year,” said Rachelle Tipton, NHS girls’ cross country head coach.
The Cardinal boys and girls compete Saturday at the Central College Dutch Invitational in Pella. Races begin at 11 a.m.