Cardinal girls place ninth at Oskaloosa
Sep. 15—OSKALOOSA — Newton sophomore Hadley Kruse picked up another medal at the Oskaloosa Invitational on Tuesday.
The Cardinals placed ninth as a team in the 12-team field, but Kruse was 11th overall and Kate Muckler finished inside the top 30 of a meet that featured two ranked teams.
"No matter how well the team can do here, this meet tends to be the hardest one mentally," Newton girls head cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. "I'm always proud of how they overcome and today is no different. A lot of good times still came out of tonight."
The top 20 finishers in each varsity 5K race earned medals.
Kruse led the Cardinals in 11th with a time of 21 minutes, 53.7 seconds. Muckler was 26th in 22:48.8.
The rest of Newton's varsity lineup featured Bella Winther in 59th with a season-best 25:22.2, Paxton Panada in 60th in 25:27 and Abbie Preston in 69th in a career-best 26:32.2.
"Hadley keeps putting herself in position with ranked athletes, she's got a big breakthrough coming," Tipton said. "Bella never gave up and came back with a great last mile."
Twin Cedars' Rylee Dunkin won the girls' 5K race in 20:25.8 and Class 2A No. 15 Serene Thompson of Albia was the runner-up in 20:29.7.
Class 2A No. 11 Albia won the team title with 45 points. Class 2A No. 4 Williamsburg was second with 86 points. The rest of the top five included Cedar Rapids Xavier (124), Pella Christian (160) and Ottumwa (166). Rounding out the 12-team field were Davis County (175), Oskaloosa (183), Danville-New London (209), Newton (213), Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (215), Burlington (232) and Twin Cedars (243).
Notes: Newton's JV was fifth in its team race. Carol Sander led the way in 31st with a career-best time of 29:25. "Carol got after it today and looked the strongest she has all season," Tipton said.
