NEWTON — The Marshalltown boys’ cross country team finished sixth out of eight teams at Newton’s 49th Steve McDermott Invitational on Tuesday at Maytag Park.
The Bobcats went without their top two runners in Preston Johnson and Carter Nunn. On this night it was freshman Costin Piscitelli leading the way with a 22nd-place finish in a time of 19 minutes, 31.4 seconds.
Isacc Ceniceros was next to cross for the Bobcats, taking 25th in 19:54.1, and he was followed closely by Michael Downs (27th, 20:02.2), Thomas Stanley (29th, 20:10.2) and Cooper McLeod (30th, 20:11.1).
Marshalltown finished with 133 points, just back of Knoxville (129) in fifth and Des Moines Lincoln (122) in fourth. Grinnell won the meet with 35 points, followed by ADM (49) and Newton (114). Albia (158) and South Tama (173) completed the team scoring.
South Tama senior Barrett Jesina scored third place in the race with a time of 17:13.9. Knoxville’s Isaac Rankin won in 17:00.7, and Grinnell’s Cadel Conner was second in 17:05.9.
Brady Jesina (32nd), Max Schirmer (39th), Jovanie Perez (48) and Riley Stubbs (50) also scored for STC.
On the girls’ side, Marshalltown was third out of four scoring teams with 78 points. Senior Anessa Morrison paced the Bobcats with a fifth-place finish and a time of 22:53.8.
Freshmen Grace Whitmore (15th, 23:29.6) and Lily Johnson (17th, 24:01.0) were next to cross for the ‘Cats, followed by juniors Sophia Valdez Chavez (28th, 27:31.7) and Alina Garcia (32nd, 29:10.7).
One of four non-scoring teams, South Tama sent three runners to the course. Jayva Gomez finished 31st (28:49.3), Livia Smith was 33rd (29:37.5) and Cahysia Kapayou 34th (30.45.6).