Newsom 2nd, Dykstra 3rd at Hillcrest Early Bird

KALONA — Winfield-Mount Union’s Kohlby Newsom and WACO’s Jude Dykstra each finished in the Top-3 of Tuesday’s Hillcrest Academy Early Bird in the first race since the two became Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Division rivals.

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Dykstra, an All-Southeast Conference runner for Mt. Pleasant Last year, was right on Newsom’s tail, but the Wolves’ returning state qualifier was too much, crossing in 17 minutes, 30.07 seconds for second place. Dysktraa took third, in 17:48.02.

Nobody could catch English Valleys’ Gage Heyne, who crossed in first with a final time of 16:47.26.

The Columbus flexed their muscles as the top team in the field. The Wildcats had four Top-10 finishes, as Ty Muniz took fourth, Ryan Villa was eighth, Eli Gonzalez Bravo took ninth, and Cade Storm finished in 10th.

As a team, the Columbus boys were best by a long shot, scoring 39 points to beat out second-place Cedar Rapids Washington’s 57. Hillcrest Academy took fourth, helped out by a 12th place finish by Jesse Blossom and a 16th-place finish by Micah Gerber. WMU finished fifth, and WACO didn’t have enough runners to score.

Hillcrest’s Marie Yoder led the area’s female runners, taking third place with a final time of 20:40.97, which was less than three seconds away from second place.

Iowa City High dominated the girls’ meet, taking up seven of the Top-9 spots. Hllcrest’s Siena Stanerson was close behind the Little Hawks, finishing 10th.

As a team, Hillcrest took fourth and Columbus finished sixth. The first non-Hillcrest area runner across was Isabel Rendon of Columbus, who edged WACO’s Josie Dykstra for 13th.

BOYS’ TEAM SCORES

1. Columbus 39

2. Cedar Rapids Washington 57

3. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 60

4. Hillcrest Academy 85

5. Winfield-Mount Union 102

6. Wapello 182

GIRLS’ TEAM SCORES

1. Iowa City High 20

2. English Valleys 65

3. Cedar Rapids Washington 92

4. Hillcrest Academy 106

5. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 114

6. Columbus 146