Aug. 31—WILLIAMSBURG — Three Cardinals finished in the top 13, five varsity runners completed the 5K in less than 20 minutes and the Newton boys' cross country team ended up third in the final standings behind two ranked squads during the Williamsburg Raider Invitational on Tuesday.

The top 15 finishers in each varsity race earned medals. Newton was led by Jesus Murillo in eighth, Landon Menninga in 11th and Javin Doland in 13th.

Lynnville-Sully's Hendrick Lowry also grabbed a top-15 finish in 12th. The Hawks were eighth as a team.

"For many of our guys it was getting back into the routine," Newton head boys cross country coach Steve Weeks said. "We lost our meet last week and most of our practices had to be modified so many times are not what we would like them to be. Ultimately, today was a springboard into the season."

Landon Menninga

Class 2A No. 11 Williamsburg won its home meet with 60 points. Class 3A No. 14 South Tama County was second with 66 points despite having the top two individual finishers.

The rest of the top five featured Newton (85), Oskaloosa (93) and Grinnell (102).

Davis County (147), Benton Community (194), Lynnville-Sully (234), PCM (260), HLV (265), Montezuma (314), Waterloo Christian (326) and Belle Plaine (365) completed the 13-team field.

Murillo, Menninga, Doland and Lowry all finished faster than 19 minutes. Newton's Presley Arnold and Christian Buchli and PCM's Coby DeRaad completed the race in under 20 minutes.

Javin Doland

South Tama's Tommy Tyynismaa, who is ranked No. 3 in 3A, won the boys' 5K race in 16 minutes, 59.7 seconds. His teammate, James Brant, was the runner-up in 17:30.1.

Murillo was the top area finisher in eighth. He was clocked in 18:33.7. Menninga finished 11th in 18:44.2 and Doland came across in 13th with a time of 18:46.1.

The other scoring runners for Newton were Arnold (19:29.1) in 26th and Buchli (19:29.8) in 27th. Lance Zaabel (20:58) and Conner McPartlin (21:22.5) were the non-scoring runners.

Asher Wood, who Weeks said earned himself a varsity spot, won the junior varsity race in 19:46.5.

"This year, we have 14 new runners who did not run competitive 5K races until today," Weeks said. "Someone who is new to a 5K race will need to learn how to run a pace that is sustainable, which does take a while.

"Our more experienced guys had issues with establishing routines, dealing with injury and getting back into the mental mindset. Everyone wants to run their best time at the start of the season, but that's just never the case."

Lowry led the Hawks in 12th and his first 5K time of the season was clocked in 18:44.4.

The other four scoring runners from L-S were Ethan Dunsbergen (21:35) in 52nd, Keegan Schnell (21:37.9) in 54th, Blake Wilmesmeier (21:50.9) in 57th and Colton Alberts (22:15.1) in 63rd.

Evan Arkema (23:24.7) and Jordan Dunsbergen (24:10) were non-scoring runners in 72nd and 77th, respectively.

Coby DeRaad

DeRaad led PCM in 25th. His time was clocked at 19:26.2.

The rest of the Mustangs' scoring runners included Joe Shaver (21:20) in 48th, Leighton McClure (22:01.7) in 61st, Charlie Ford (22:03) in 62nd and Kolby Clark (22:46) in 68th.

Gabe Nessa (24:11.3) and Jacob Buys (28:56.1) were non-scoring runners in 78th and 84th, respectively.