Doland leads Newton boys to seventh at Wartburg

WAVERLY — Javin Doland and Cooper Lenz both finished in the top 20 to lead the Newton boys cross country to a seventh-place finish on Saturday.

The short-handed Cardinals scored 203 points and came within six of a state-ranked team at the Dan Huston/Steve Johnson Invitational at Wartburg College.

“Another hot day but another great day for a race,” Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “The boys were without a top runner, Lance Zaabel, and his brother Levi is still recovering, but otherwise ran a great race.”

Davenport Central won the team title with 28 points, while Cedar Rapids Xavier (118), Davenport Assumption (122), Clear Lake (125) and Class 1A No. 6 Earlham (127) completed the top five of the 19-team field.

Newton trailed (203) 1A No. 9 Columbus Community (197) by six points for sixth and the rest of the top 10 included Austin (Minnesota) with 211 points, Sibley-Ocheyedan with 222 points and Cedar Rapids Washington with 308 points.

“The race gave us many season bests and a good preview of what many of the top teams at the state look like this year,” Weeks said. “I’m proud of how they ran with adversity, and we continue to improve as a team.”

Doland placed 10th in the varsity boys’ orange 5K race with a season-best time of 17 minutes, 20.6 seconds.

Lenz was 17th in a season-best 17:30 and the other scoring runners were Christian Buchli (season-best 18:30.1) in 41st, Drew Lamont (season-best 19:17.5) in 69th and David Wickett (season-best 19:32.5) in 73rd.

“Freshmen Drew Lamont, David Wickett and Parker Kennedy continue to improve and show themselves to be the future of the program,” Weeks said. “Christian, Javin and Cooper raced the best they have all season.”

The non-scoring runners were Levi Zaabel (20:09.9) in 95th and Noah Tremel (20:22.2) in 98th.

Lance Zaabel missed the meet due to an illness and Levi Zaabel competed under the weather.

Davenport Central’s Zack Ryan won the boys’ race in 16:19.8 and Tyler Ryan was the runner-up in 16:30.6.

“There’s still enough season left that we plan to continue to improve and get ready for the last two regular season meets of the year, which are Fort Dodge and then the Little Hawkeye Conference meet at Maytag Park,” Weeks said.