Newell-Fonda boys seventh at Storm Lake Invitational on relay strength

Newell-Fonda finished seventh with 9 points at the Storm Lake Invitational, but the Mustangs were far from invisible at Storm Lake High School’s outdoor track. Their best work came in the relays, where the team collected points in four events and stayed ahead of St. Marys in a field won by Carroll with 157 points.

The 4x800 relay delivered Newell-Fonda’s strongest result, taking third in 9:36.93. The 4x200 relay finished fifth in 1:44.5, the 4x100 relay placed sixth in 51.3 seconds, and the sprint medley relay took seventh in 1:48.27. That relay steadiness gave the Mustangs a scoring base against larger programs such as Storm Lake, Humboldt and Cherokee Washington.

Newell-Fonda’s individual points came from a small group of athletes who kept the team in the meet. Lincoln Gauley placed seventh in the discus with a throw of 112 feet, 10 inches. Brock White finished eighth in the 800 meters in 2:22.58, Jack Olsen took eighth in the 1,600 meters in 5:07.2, and Austin Barber added an eighth-place finish in the 3,200 meters. Those marks helped stretch the Mustangs’ total, but they also showed how thin the scoring margin was outside the relays.

Coach Drew Radloff said the meet came with a built-in challenge because Newell-Fonda was missing some key athletes who were at a golf meet. That opened the door for younger runners to step into relay roles alongside more experienced teammates, a small but important development point for a program trying to balance spring schedules. The district’s athletics philosophy says no student should have to choose between activities, and that overlap was on display this week as Mustang athletes competed in more than one sport.

The seventh-place finish was a modest one, but it still showed where Newell-Fonda can hang with stronger teams and where it needs help. The relays are keeping the Mustangs afloat. To climb at upcoming meets, the team will need more individual scorers to join Gauley, White, Olsen and Barber so the burden does not fall on a few races alone.