April 23, 2024

Cardinal girls capture three gold medals at Ames track meet

By Jocelyn Sheets

Anna Barr competes in the high jump for Newton’s girls. She is seen here at the Little Hawkeye Conference indoor meet in March. (Jocelyn Sheets)

AMES — Michaela Bleeker and Sarah Kalkhoff each won a throwing event Tuesday at the Ames Jim Duea Invitational track meet. They each finished eighth in a throwing event.

Bleeker took the gold medal in the shot put with a throw of 40 feet, 1/2 inch. Kalkhoff was eighth in the event at 33’6 1/2”. So turnabout is fair play, Kalkhoff captured the gold in the discus with a toss of 132’4” and Bleeker finished eighth at 97’3”.

Grace Coen grabbed the other gold medal for the Cardinal varsity. Coen won the 800- meter run in 2 minutes. 19.48 seconds. Kaelee Knoll was 14th in 2:46.51.

“This is always a tough meet of competition for us. Even though we did not score high as a team or have several top finishes, we did have many improved performances to celebrate,” said Rachel Tomas, Cardinal head coach.

Newton finished seventh in the varsity division with 60 points. Waukee won both the varsity — with 172 points — and the junior varsity division — with 184 points. The Cardinal junior varsity athletes scored 27 points for eighth.

The Cardinals are at home Thursday as Newton hosts a coed invitational track meet at H.A .Lynn Stadium.  Field events start at 4:30 p.m.

Newton’s 4x200-meter relay team of Sydney Jenkins, Alex Hutchinson, Leela Spencer and Amber Karsten turned in a second-place time of 1:48.59. In the 800-meter sprint medley relay race, Newton’s foursome of Kacy Cazett Spencer, Hutchinson and Coen finished fourth in 1:58.58.

Newton’s distance medley relay team of Cazett, Emma Meyer, Anna Barr and Hailey Coy took fifth in 4:38.97. Coen, Coy, Karsten and Jenkins combined for fifth place in the 4x400-meter relay event with a time of 4:14.82.

The Cardinals’ Cazett, Spencer, Kartsen and Jenkins teamed up to place eighth in the 4x100-meter relay race in 56.82. Knoll, Annie Hurt, Sarah Prendergast and Autumn Hunt combined for the 4x800-meter relay, finishing eighth in 11:48.01.

Barr was seventh in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:15.53. Bailey Zarbuba took 10th in the 100-meter hurdles in 17.75 seconds. and Barr was 12th in 18.11. The 4x100-meter shuttle hurdle relay team of Zarbuba, Taylor Graff, Brenna Schwenker and Fran Lucas was sixth in 1:15.76.

The top performance for the Cardinal junior varsity was a first-place finish in the shot put by Madison Bagnall with a throw of 33 feet. Sydney Bergman was seventh at 28’3 1/4”. Bagnall took fourth in the discus at 86’1” and Bergman was sixth at 80’1”.

Graff placed seventh in the 100-meter hurdles in 19.01 seconds and Lucas finished eighth in 19.03 in junior varsity action.