Newell-Fonda, St. Mary’s boys fall short at Audubon qualifier, post strong marks

Brendon Petersen’s 55.37 in the 400 meters and a string of top-eight finishes showed how close Newell-Fonda and Storm Lake St. Mary’s came to sending someone to state from Audubon.

Neither Buena Vista County program advanced an event to the Iowa High School State Track & Field Championships, but the Class 1A qualifier still produced marks that mattered. Petersen led St. Mary’s with a seventh-place run in the 400, while Newell-Fonda got a fifth-place showing in the 4x800 relay in 9:42.19 and a fourth-place finish from its distance medley relay in 3:49.72. St. Mary’s answered with a fourth-place effort in the 4x400 relay in 3:52.98.

The individual distances were just as crowded. Newell-Fonda’s Jack Olsen finished the 1,600 in 5:05.59, Austin Barber took sixth in the 3,200 in 11:43.75, and St. Mary’s’ Paul Foell placed eighth in 12:46.95. In the field events, Kinnick Kaufman cleared 5-8 to place fifth in the high jump, Brayden Johnson took eighth in the shot put at 40-2, and Lincoln Gauley finished sixth in the discus at 117-9.

Relay depth kept both schools in the mix even after the qualifying line slipped away. Newell-Fonda’s 4x100 relay placed seventh in 46.23, and its 4x400 relay finished eighth in 4:04.98. Those results underscore the reality of Iowa’s postseason format, where no more than 24 athletes or relay teams can qualify in an event, and solid performances can still miss the cut in a large Class 1A field.

Audubon hosted the Class 1A site for Newell-Fonda and St. Mary’s, along with ACGC, Ar-We-Va, Boyer Valley, CAM, Coon Rapids-Bayard, Exira-EHK, Glidden-Ralston, IKM-Manning, Logan-Magnolia, Paton-Churdan and West Bend-Mallard. The state-qualifying meets were held Thursday, May 14, with the championship meet set for May 21-23 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

For both programs, the numbers from Audubon suggest a solid base rather than a dead end. Newell-Fonda and St. Mary’s did not break through this spring, but the combination of relay strength, distance depth and field-event scoring gives each team something to build on heading into next season.