Newton girls qualify eight entries for state track meet

PELLA — The competition between hurdlers on the Newton girls’ track and field team has been fierce this spring. It’s been quite stressful at times, too.

In the end, the same foursome who finished as the runner-up in Class 3A last spring joined forces again at the state qualifier on Thursday and the Cardinals made maybe their biggest statement of the season.

The shuttle hurdle relay team secured one of three victories on the night as Newton scored 115.5 points thanks to five automatic state qualifiers and nine top-three finishes.

“I think things went mostly as expected. We came in ranked in the top two or three in a lot of events,” Newton co-head girls’ track and field coach Rachel Tomas said. “When you look at it across the board, we came ready to compete. You can’t fault our girls for any efforts because they ended on their best performances of the season.”

Pella won the meet championship with 190 points on a rainy night at Pella High School. Oskaloosa (122) edged Newton with a late push in the final events and Newton (115.5), Bondurant-Farrar (88), Grinnell (69), Knoxville (61), Saydel (38) and South Tama County (23.5) completed the eight-team field.

The shuttle hurdle relay team will enter the state meet with the top time in 3A. The foursome of Macy Lampe, JaQuay Priest, Chloe Rorabaugh and Addy Terpstra won the race with a season-best and school-record time of 1 minute, 4.76 seconds.

The group dropped nearly two seconds off the team’s previous season-best time.

“It all came together because they all were three steppers except for Chloe on one hurdle,” Tomas said. “When you have four fast girls who can three-step between the hurdles, you will see a big drop in time. They were able to put it all together because they all had clean races. One nicked hurdle can cause a lot of issues, but when you run it clean you see what can happen.”

Terpstra also returns to the state meet in the 100-meter hurdles and Tori White won the high jump to clinch her first state berth.

The Cardinals were second in the 4x100 and 4x800 relays and third in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. Brooklyn Shannon finished third in the 400 and Priest also grabbed the bronze medal in the 100 hurdles.

The top two finishers in each event in 3A lock up automatic state berths. The next eight best performances earn at-large spots.

Terpstra, the defending 3A state champion, won the 100 hurdles in 15.0 seconds.

She goes into the state meet as one of the favorites and her top time of 14.74 seconds from earlier this season basically ranks first in 3A. The 15.0 was the second-fastest qualifying time.

“It felt good. I wanted to PR again, but that’s not always how it goes,” Terpstra said.

The Cardinal senior will anchor the shuttle hurdle relay team. The foursome goes into the state meet almost a full second faster than Solon, which is expected to be the team’s biggest competition.

“I didn’t expect that, but it feels great,” Terpstra said. “I felt like if we ran a 1:06 again, I would still be confident because we dropped three seconds at state last year. But now, this time gives me even more confidence. I think we can still PR again.”

Prior to the state qualifier, Newton’s shuttle hurdle relay team’s fastest four times did not feature all four runners who competed in the race on Thursday.

Tomas and co-head coach Rachelle Tipton used every single meet to determine which four runners would be on the state team.

“That’s our second time breaking the school record,” Priest said. “That’s ridiculous. And we proved that our old shuttle team is coming back. This is what we needed to jump-start the state journey.”

The Cardinal foursome is now looking at winning a state title next week on the blue oval.

“I was shocked. We have been working for that all season. It’s great we can prove what this group is capable of,” Lampe said. “The goal is to win state. That has to be the goal.”

Rorabaugh, the third leg of the relay, said she looked up at the board when she was finished and knew they would have a shot at a season-best time.

“Addy was going really fast. I thought at that point there was no way we aren’t getting a PR,” Rorabaugh said. “It feels like we are on top of the world. We want to win state. That’s definitely the goal.”

White needed just one made mark to win the high jump. When she successfully hit the winning leap of 4 feet, 10 inches, there were around five competitors left.

None of the other jumpers made 4-10. White missed all three of her attempts at 5-0, but it didn’t matter.

White got a bit emotional after the win. It was mostly happy tears because she didn’t expect to make the state meet when the indoor season began in March.

“I knew I could be good at this event, but I didn’t think state was possible,” White said. “I was crying on the mat because I was disappointed but also happy to be going to state. My calf barely hit the bar on that last jump. I thought I made it, but I guess I hit it somewhere. I’m just so happy though.”

The Cardinals qualified for their first state berth on the track in the 4x800 relay. The team of Kate Muckler, Harper Barton, Bella Winther and Hadley Kruse posted a season-best time of 10:19.62, which was six seconds faster than their previous best time.

Muckler returns to the state meet but will have a whole new group with her this spring. And the team ran the 24th-best qualifying time.

“The whole year I have been trying to keep the focus on state. That’s the goal,” Muckler said. “Going back to state is a great feeling. I’m really excited to be going back. It’s a full-circle moment.

“I wanted to be able to end in a big moment, and I’m just really glad I get to do it with my favorite people.”

The final automatic qualifier came in the 4x100 relay. The foursome of Lola Rivera, Priest, Abby Bruce and Terpstra posted a season-best time of 50.66 seconds.

It will be the first state berth for both Rivera and Bruce and the 4x100 relay team goes into the state meet with the 14th-best qualifying time.

“It feels great. I’m really excited,” Rivera said. “We started the season with a 53.98. We dropped time at Pella and then went down another 1.5 seconds or so tonight. Our handoffs were really good.”

Rivera was part of an unfortunate situation earlier in the night. She led off the sprint medley relay and that Cardinal foursome thought they secured an automatic bid with a second-place finish.

The team of Rivera, Priest, Lauren Clarke and Shannon ran a season-best time and finished second but was later disqualified in a controversial decision. While attempting to make a pass on the outside with about 200 meters to go, Shannon got tangled up with the anchor leg from Bondurant-Farrar.

Bondurant-Farrar’s coach requested a disqualification. Newton’s coaches protested the DQ, but the decision was upheld by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union despite meet officials on the track not holding up a yellow flag at the time of the incident. Bondurant-Farrar’s time would have been fast enough for an at-large berth anyway.

“We performed a lot of personal-best and season-best times,” Tomas said. “Even though our sprint medley was disqualified, it was a season-best. Our 4x800 was a season-best. Our shuttle was a season-best. Our 4x200 and 4x100 were both season-bests.”

Shannon bounced back from the disqualification in the sprint medley with a strong performance in the 400. Her time of 1:00.84 placed her third and the nearly career-best time was fast enough to score an at-large berth.

Shannon goes into her first state meet with the 14th-best qualifying time.

She later ran on the 4x400 relay team which placed third. The foursome of Winther, Muckler, Shannon and Clarke scored an at-large berth with a season-best time of 4:09.64. It was the 13th-fastest qualifying time in 3A.

The final state qualifier is Priest, who placed third in the 100 hurdles. Her career-best time of 16.36 seconds was the 21st-best qualifying time.

“This is my senior year, and I’m just so grateful to be a part of this team,” Priest said. “I would not want to do this in any of my races with any other group of girls. I just love these girls. I wouldn’t have made it through without them.”

It rained on and off throughout the evening, and Priest said her marks on the track were affected during relays.

“My chalk on the track literally rained away,” Priest said. “I didn’t exactly know where the mark was so we just did all that off God I guess. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was all off memory.”

The Cardinals posted a strong time in the 4x200 relay, too. But it wasn’t quite enough to secure an at-large state berth.

Newton’s foursome of Clarke, Rivera, Bruce and Winther finished third in a season-best 1:50.22.

The distance medley relay team featuring Mack Sims, Alex Riney, Briana Shannon and Kruse placed fourth in 4:41.45.

Newton scored double points in several individual events. Abbie Preston (1:09.72) was sixth in the 400, Riney (4-6) tied for fifth in the high jump and Barton and Peyton Ray finished 4-5 in the 1,500 with times of 5:28.94 and 5:34.06, respectively. That was a career-best time for Ray.

Gracie Clayton also posted a career-best time of 1:13.6 and placed fourth in the 400 hurdles and Riney’s season-best time of 2:39.38 in the 800 helped her finish fourth.

Bruce placed fifth in the long jump with a career-best leap of 15-9, Annie Main (14.33 seconds) was fifth in the 100 and Cameron Sharp (14:07.21) finished sixth in the 3,000.

Notes: The 3A portion of the state meet begins at 2 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.