Eleven top-three finishes lift Newton girls to second at Osky Relays

OSKALOOSA — Lauren Clarke and Tori White both won an individual race and moved into the top 10 in Class 3A and 11 top-three finishes catapulted the Newton girls track and field team to a runner-up finish at the 97th Osky Relays on Thursday.

The Cardinals posted four wins and five third-place finishes and scored 96.5 points at Statesmen Community Stadium.

“Tuesday was a long night and we arrived tonight to a very windy track, but there’s no quit in this team,” Newton head girls track and field coach Rachelle Tipton said. “They faced some of their toughest competition yet and took full advantage.”

Pella handed the Cardinals their first loss of the season as the Lady Dutch scored 165 points at the top of the girls standings.

Martensdale-St. Marys (60), Ottumwa (57) and Grinnell (50) completed the top five and the rest of the 10-team field featured host Oskaloosa (49), Albia (47), Carlisle (44.5), Knoxville (13) and Des Moines Hoover (7).

Clarke won the 200-meter dash in a career-best time of 25.68 seconds, which ranks eighth in the state and fourth in Class 3A. Lola Rivera was third in the 200 in 27.63.

Clarke also posted a career-best time of 12.51 seconds in the 100. She was second in the race, ranks 13th in the state and sits sixth in 3A.

White won the 100 hurdles in a career-best 15.74 seconds, which ranks seventh in 3A. Macy Lampe was sixth in 16.94.

The Cardinals’ other two wins came in the distance medley and shuttle hurdle relays.

The foursome of Camryn Klein, Clarke, Bella Winther and Harper Barton won the distance medley relay in a season-best 4 minutes, 28.6 seconds. That time ranks fourth in 3A.

The shuttle hurdle relay team posted a season-best time of 1:08.14. That group featured Lampe, Klein, Mack Sims and White and the time sits second in 3A.

The other runner-up finish came in the 4x400 relay as the team of Winther, Alex Riney, Barton and Klein posted a time of 4:22.09.

The 4x100 relay team of BrookLynn Britton, Rivera, Klein and Clarke finished third in a season-best time of 51.72.

Riney, Temple Barton, Peyton Ray and Sarah Malow also were third in the 4x800 relay. That group finished the race in 11:24.18.

Audrey Muckler and Alexis Sorensen went 3-5 in the 3,000 with times of 11:32.20 and 11:42.7, respectively.

Sims’ career-best time of 1:14.05 placed her third in the 400 hurdles and Addie Hammerly was fifth in the discus with a toss of 94 feet, 4 inches.

Winther (2:34.24) placed fifth in the 800 and Harper Barton and Muckler were 5-6 in the 1,500 with career-best times of 5:09.91 and 5:21.04, respectively.

“We are very pleased overall with how the night went, but as always there are things to keep working on and improve upon as we progress more into the season,” Tipton said.