Newton harriers face toughest field in Fort Dodge

FORT DODGE — The Newton cross country teams won’t face a tougher field at the state meet than it did at the Fort Dodge Cross Country Invitational on Thursday.

The Cardinals batted a plethora of ranked squads at Lakeside Municpal Golf Course.

Audrey Muckler led the Newton girls to 20th out of 25 teams, while Cooper Lenz highlighted the Cardinal boys, who were 22nd in the 28-team field.

“We go into this meet knowing we are facing the best competition of the year and to take advantage of it,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “The team did that tonight. A top-20 finish was definitely doable as was a top-50 finish for Audrey, who just missed out but ran a great race.”

The top four Newton finishers in the girls’ 5K race posted career-best times.

Muckler led the way in 52nd with a time of 20 minutes, 22.2 seconds. Talia Friedman (22:26.1) finished 141st, Sarah Malow (22:40.2) was 148th and Meghan Trout (23:32.9) took 148th.

The final scoring runner was Bella Winther (23:48.7) in 174th. Alivia Kingery (23:52.2) and Laek Sullivan (26:03.1) were non-scoring runners in 178th and 202nd, respectively.

“I’m proud of this team for how they support and push each other and are able to step up when needed,” Tipton said. “We have not had consistency in the five scorers, but the team still gets it done; although it would still be ideal to have everyone healthy on the same day.

“(Trout) was one who stepped up today and had a very strong second half of the race. You could see the fight in her eyes in the straightaway to the finish.”

Class 4A No. 3 Piper Messerly of Dallas Center-Grimes won the girls’ race in 18:11.6. Class 4A No. 5 Anika Mohrhauser of Ankeny Centennial was the runner-up in 18:18.3.

Class 4A No. 2 Johnston won the meet with 48 points. The Dragons placed five in the first 18 positions and all seven varsity runners finished in the top 25.

Class 4A No. 4 Ankeny Centennial (80), 4A No. 5 West Des Moines Valley (127), 4A No. 10 Ankeny (144) and 4A No. 9 Waukee Northwest (161) completed the top five.

Class 4A No. 12 Dowling Catholic (214), 4A No. 8 DCG (214), 4A No. 13 Waukee (234), 4A No. 14 Indianola (238) and Mason City (307) finalized the top 10.

ADM, ranked 14th in 3A, was the top non-4A team in 12th. Newton scored 579 points in 20th.

Lenz led the Newton boys in 69th with a season-best time of 16:59.1. Javin Doland (17:58.7), Christian Buchli (season best 18:11.1), Lance Zaabel (18:27.5) and Levi Zaabel (career best 19:16) were the final scoring runners in 140th, 152nd, 167th and 188th, respectively.

Noah Tremel (career best 19:21.8) was 189th and Parker Kennedy (career best 19:58.1) finished 203rd as non-scoring runners.

“Ultimately, the Fort Dodge meet was a success,” Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. “The finishing spots don’t matter as much when you take into consideration that when state rolls around many of these teams will be in 4A. The story here is really in all of the individual performances.

“Of the 16 runners, there were eight personal records and two season bests. It’s a pretty awesome night when half of your runners break personal records, and it’s great that it’s the time of year when almost all of our guys are peaking at the right time.”

Lance Zaabel is still not 100 percent back from an illness, according to Weeks. And varsity runner Drew Lamont was absent due to illness.

Class 4A No. 1 Ethan Zuber of Ankeny won the boys’ race in 15:11.5. The runner-up was 4A No. 8 Jack Flori (15:23.4) of Dowling Catholic.

The 4A No. 1 Maroons won the team title with 41 points. They placed all seven runners in the top 20 and the five scorers finished in the top 15.

Class 4A No. 9 Norwalk (126), 4A No. 8 Waukee Northwest (157), 4A No. 13 Ankeny Centennial (184) and 4A No. 5 Ankeny (205) completed the top five.

Class 4A No. 16 Council Bluffs Lewis Central (218), 4A No. 10 Johnston (228), 4A No. 6 Waukee (228), 4A No. 12 Indianola (251) and 4A No. 11 DCG finalized the top 10.

Class 2A No. 8 Unity Christian (419) was 15th and 3A No. 9 ADM (446) and 3A No. 14 Carlisle (501) were 17th and 19th, respectively.

Newton scored 632 points in 22nd. Class 1A No. 16 Fort Dodge St. Edmond (582) finished 20th.

“We’re still waiting for everyone to be healthy at the same time, but it seems like all the other pieces are starting to come together,” Weeks said. “Now, we have the quick turnaround for the Little Hawkeye Conference meet, where every other team is ranked in the state except for us, just to give an idea of how insanely difficult our conference really is. The boys have been focused in practice and putting in the hard work, and now all we have to do is go out and earn it.”