Newton boys finish sixth against stacked field in annual home meet

The boys’ varsity field for Newton’s home cross country meet is usually pretty modest.

This year, nearly half of the field is currently ranked and Class 4A Marshalltown’s roster features two ranked runners.

The tough field on a hilly course was too much for the Newton boys cross country team to overcome on Tuesday as the Cardinals placed sixth in the eight-team lineup at the 48th Annual Steve McDermott Cardinal Cross Country Invitational.

“I was impressed with our guys on how tough they pushed through our home course,” Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “Maytag Park has some of the toughest hills in the state, and many visiting athletes let us know they were not prepared for the task.”

The top 10 finishers in each varsity race earned medals. Six of the first seven finishers in the boys’ varsity 5K race are currently ranked, too.

Marshalltown, which had the top two finishers and placed three in the top four, won the meet with 50 points.

Class 3A No. 8 ADM (63), 3A No. 13 Grinnell (69), the Ames junior varsity (80) and 3A No. 19 Knoxville (122) completed the top five.

Newton (127) led the next group in sixth. Des Moines Lincoln (166) was seventh, Atlantic (214) placed eighth and South Tama County was an incomplete team.

“Knoxville was only five points in front of Newton, a smaller gap than last week at Oskaloosa,” Weeks said.

Cooper Lenz led the Cardinals in 14th. He hit the finish line in 18 minutes, 0.5 seconds.

Lance Zaabel was next in 21st in 18:14.5 and Javin Doland (18:37.2) rallied from a slow start to finish 29th.

Christian Buchli (18:52.9) stayed in the team’s No. 4 spot in 31st and the final scoring runner was Drew Lamont (19:30.1) in 37th.

The Cardinals’ non-scoring runners were Levi Zaabel (19:51.6) and David Wickett (20:17.3) in 41st and 48th, respectively.

Noah Tremel and Parker Kennedy have gone back and forth on the varsity squad. Tremel (20:40.1) was 26th in the boys’ junior varsity race while Kennedy (20:48) took 32nd.

“(Lenz) and (Lance Zaabel) spent most of the race jockeying for position at the front,” Weeks said. “(Doland) likes to let the field get in front of him and spend the rest of the race picking people off. (Buchli) was in hot pursuit of (Lance Zaabel) and (Lenz) and had a great race. (Lamont), (Levi Zaabel), and (Wickett) continue to improve and switch up spots 5-6-7 on varsity.

“(Tremel) and (Kennedy) continue to be chase spots on varsity. Hudson Swarts had a monster day and is starting to separate from others in the JV race.”

Class 4A No. 10 Preston Johnson of Marshalltown won the boys’ race in 16:37, while 4A No. 19 John Moellers of Marshalltown was the runner-up in 16:45.6.

Class 3A No. 12 Isaac Rankin of Knoxville finished third, 3A No. 21 Barrett Jesina of South Tama was fifth and 3A No. 28 Cadel Conner of Grinnell took sixth. Class 3A No. 27 Torin Timmerman of ADM finished seventh.