Zaabel, Doland lead Newton boys to fourth at Williamsburg

WILLIAMSBURG — The Newton boys cross country team did not produce times it was hoping for during the season opener on Tuesday.

The good news though is that the Cardinals don’t have to be at their best yet.

Newton placed fourth out of 13 teams during the Williamsburg Raider Invitational. The Cardinals were led by Lance Zaabel and Javin Doland and scored 120 points at the Williamsburg Recreation Center.

“As this was our first meet of the year, it’s more about placement rather than times,” Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “The times of the first meet or two are never where we want them to be and will not be continuations of last year’s times.”

Class 2A No. 3 Mid-Prairie won the meet championship with 38 points. Class 3A No. 12 Grinnell was the runner-up with 65 points and Williamsburg (99) completed the top three.

After Newton was 2A No. 15 Mediapolis (139) in fifth. PCM was sixth with 144 points, while Oskaloosa (157), Benton Community (214), Davis County (234), HLV (297), Montezuma (327), Waterloo Christian (342) and Belle Plaine (380) completed the 13-team field.

Mid-Prairie’s Emmitt Swartzentruber won the boys’ varsity 5K race in 16 minutes, 56.2 seconds. Will Schmidgall of Mediapolis was the runner-up in 17:00.9.

Zaabel led the Cardinals in 13th. His time was 18:00.6. Doland also grabbed a top-20 finish in 17th. He was clocked in 18:11.9.

Newcomer Cooper Lenz was 30th in 19:08.5, Christian Buchli placed 34th in 19:21.1 and Drew Lamont was the final counting scorer in 38th. His prep debut time was clocked in 19:33.4.

Levi Zaabel (19:41.3) and Noah Tremel (22:17.5) were non-scoring runners in 41st and 76th, respectively.

“Ultimately, times are not where we want them to be, which means there’s a lot that needs to be done before we are talking about any trips to state this year,” Weeks said. “Right now, we need to focus on ourselves, the team and improving our times.”

Weeks said Parker Kennedy, despite coming down with an unexpected illness during the junior varsity race, was fast enough to earn a spot on varsity for next week.

PCM was led by newcomer Kash Fischer, who placed 16th in 18:11.2. Coby DeRaad was 20th in 18:34.9.

The rest of the scoring runners were Owen Osterhaus (18:51.1), Joe Shaver (20:11.4) and Rylan Edgington (20:21.8) in 23rd, 49th and 50th, respectively. it was the varsity debuts for Osterhaus and Edgington.

PCM’s non-scoring runners were Gabe Nessa (20:25.7) and Kolby Clark (20:30) in 51st and 55th, respectively. There were no seniors in the Mustangs’ varsity lineup.