A new season begins tonight for the Newton girls basketball and boys swim teams, while the boys basketball team scrimmages against Carlisle on the road. 

The Cardinal girls will travel to Chariton for a non-conference game. The Chargers were 6-16 last season and return the second, third, and fourth leading scorers from a year ago. Newton coach Jake Bennett has two starters back from last year’s 11-12 team. Senior forward Tori White led last year’s squad in scoring, averaging 7.9 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game. The other returning starter is junior guard Payton Carkhuff. She averaged almost 5.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game last year. Three freshmen were key players off the bench for Newton a year ago, with each playing in 21 or more games. They were guards Sophie Coady and Camryn Klein, and forward Addyson Cibula. The Cardinals and Chargers game tips off at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

The Newton boys swim team opens the season at the Ankeny Boys Swimming Sprint Invite. Seven other teams will join the Cardinals. Newton head coach Lucas Warner has Senior Finn Martin back, the defending State Champion in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events. Also competing again this year is senior Ethan Comer and junior Caleb Punt. They were part of the 200-yard freestyle relay team with Martin and MacK Copeland, who finished 10th at the state meet last year. The Ankeny Boys Swimming Sprint Invite begins at 5:30 this evening at the Ankeny DMACC Campus Pool. 

The Newton Boys basketball team gets to go up against some other players tonight in a scrimmage at 7:30 in Carlisle. The team has another scrimmage scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Gilbert. The Cardinal boys basketball team is set to open the season at home December 2nd against Grinnell.