Chase County Longhorns see Class C’s best at Sutherland

The Chase County boys track team continued to roll through its season, picking up a dominant win at the Sutherland Invite Friday.
The Longhorns won the meet 157-97 over North Platte St. Pat’s.
That’s not to say CCS didn’t see some of the best competition in the state. While the Ogallala Invite featured strong teams, the Sutherland meet had more than its fair share of high-quality individual performers.
Will Kulhanek of Overton won the 100-meter and 400-meter dashes. His 400-meter dash personal best Friday has him sitting at third in all classes.
Running against Kulhanek, Chase County’s Easton Fries finished second with his season’s best time in the 400. Fries was the only runner in the top five of the race who didn’t PR.
Thomas Reeves finished second to Kulhanek in the 100-meter dash.
More locally, Perkins County’s Mason McGreer is running strong in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. Chase County’s Haven Hauxwell finished second to McGreer in both races.
North Platte St. Pat’s Jaxon Knisley continued to dominate the 110-meter high hurdle. Knisley, last year’s Class C state champion in the race, moved up to No. 2 in the all-class standings with a win Friday. Fries placed second, just as he did in Omaha last year.
Fries moved up to third in the all-class standings for the 110-meter high hurdles after Friday’s performance and is second all class in the 300-meter hurdles. Fries won the 300-meter hurdles at Sutherland.
CCS picked up first place finishes, Mason Wallin in pole vault and Kole Clevenger in triple jump.
The Longhorns swept the top three spots in triple jump with James McArthur and Tyler O’Neil finishing second and third, respectively.
CCS also placed three athletes in the top eight in the 800-meter run, 1,600-meter run, 3,200-meter run, 300-meter hurdles, shot put, discus and pole vault.
Other second-place finishes came from two sophomores,  Krayton Paisley in the 800 and Noah Rau in the discus.
Overall, the Longhorns had nine individual personal bests.
The SPVA meet coming up April 26 in Hershey should be a fun one for relay fans.
NPSP and CCS are 1-2, respectively in the Class C 400-meter relay, just as they finished in Sutherland. Runners for Chase County were Jonathan Sosa, Tucker Mollendor, Reeves and Wallin.
The Longhorns set a meet record in the 1,600-meter relay, crossing the finish line 17 seconds ahead of second place Overton. On the track were Clevenger, Tristan Jablonski, Reeves and Fries.
Perkins County, NPSP and Chase County are all ranked in the Class C top 10 in the 3,200-meter relay. PCS is second in Class C and set a new school record in its relay win.
Chase County is No. 8 in Class C but placed third Friday behind NPSP. Running for the Longhorns was Luis Co, Jablonski, Trevin Moreno and Paisley.
CCS Head Coach said each of these teams has the potential to win at least one relay at state.
“This meet was packed with strong individuals, which is exactly what we need to see in order to have ourselves ready for the state meet in about one month,” Zuege said.
With the Don Stine Invite in Cambridge last Monday, Sutherland Friday, the Chase County Invite Wednesday and the Mike Troxell Invite at Hershey Saturday, Zuege said it’s a really tough stretch of the season.
“At this point in the season your meets really are your hard training days. If we have two meets per week over the next few weeks, then we have to give some time for recovery and let the meets really help to sharpen our training,” Zuege said, adding, coaches will still certainly try to fit some challenging workouts in here and there.
“But the foundation of our training pretty much needs to be established by now, so now we work on fine tuning and details,” he finished.
Up next
The Chase County Invite, scheduled for Tuesday, was moved to Wednesday to avoid the moisture and wind scheduled for Tuesday.
“We are really looking forward to Wednesday so that we can get all of our athletes entered and let them perform for their home crowd. Hopefully we will have some nice weather and an opportunity to set some PR’s,” Zuege said.
Attending the meet will be Dundy County Stratton, Garden County, Hershey, Maxwell, Ogallala and Perkins County.
With the possibility of bad weather Saturday, Hershey officials will decide Friday if their meet will be held.
Potential opponents in Hershey are Arthur County, Axtell, North Platte JV, NPSP, Perkins County and Sutherland.
Sutherland Invite
Team results—1. Chase County, 157; 2. North Platte St. Patrick’s, 97; 3. Perkins County, 58; 4. Dundy County Stratton, 53; 5. Overton, 52.5; 6. Hershey, 27.5; 7. Sandhills Valley, 20; 8. Sutherland, 16; 9. Maxwell, 12; 10. Garden County, 9; 10. Arthur County, 9; 12. Paxton, 6; 12. Hyannis, 6; 14. Wallace, 4.
Individual results
100 Meters—1. William Kulhanek, 10.95, Overton; 2. Thomas Reeves, 11.18, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Chase Moorhead, 23.00, Hershey; 5. Camron Lempke, 23.84, CCS.
400 Meters—1. William Kulhanek, 49.08, Overton; 2. Easton Fries, 50.69, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Isaac Goosey, 2:10.05, Sandhills Valley, 2. Krayton Paisley, 2:11.63, CCS; 7. Luis Co, 2:15.32, CCS; 8. Brextin Moreno, 2:15.38, CCS.
1600 Meters—1. Mason McGreer, 4:46.41, Perkins County; 2. Haven Hauxwell, 4:53.27, CCS; 6. Andrew Wiest, 5:11.62, CCS; 7. Trevin Moreno, 5:19.17, CCS.
3200 Meters—1. McGreer, 10:26.16, Perkins County; 2. Hauxwell, 10:32.15, CCS; 6. Wiest, 11:22.49, CCS; 8. Navy Smith, 11:34.58, CCS.
110m Hurdles—1. Jaxon Knisley, 14.31, NPSP; 2. Fries, 14.47, CCS; 6. Tyler O’Neil, 17.59, CCS.
300m Hurdles—1. Fries, 40.26, CCS; 3. Scott Hoover, 44.96, CCS; 4. O’Neil, 46.04, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. NPSP, 43.79; 2. CCS (Jonathan Sosa, Tucker Mollendor, Reeves, Mason Wallin), 44.19.
4x400 Relay—1. CCS (Kole Clevenger, Tristan Jablonski, Reeves, Fries), 3:29.78.
4x800 Relay—1. PCS, 8:23.65; 3. CCS (Co, Jablonski, T. Moreno, Paisley), 8:52.68.
Shot Put—1. Brock Bailey, 53’10.25, Dundy County Stratton; 5. Ray Murillo, 44’10.75, CCS; 6. Jaret Peterson, 44’8.25, CCS; 7. Noah Rau, 43’0, CCS.
Discus—1. Cooper Hill, 149’7, Hershey; 2. Noah Rau, 146’10, CCS; 4. Cooper Dillan, 144’9, CCS; 5. Jaret Peterson, 140’7, CCS.
High Jump—1. Jackson Kerchal, 6’0, Dundy County Stratton; 7. Cesar Valencia, 5’4, CCS; 8. James Bomba, 5’2, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Mason Wallin, 14’0, CCS; 5. Spencer Kelley, 10’6, CCS; 7. Tate Hubbard, 10’6, CCS.
Long Jump—1. William Kulhanek, 21’0.25, Overton; 3. Clevenger, 20’3.75, CCS; 5. Mollendor, 19’4, CCS.
Triple Jump—1. Clevenger, 41’11.5, CCS, 2. James McArthur, 40’5.5, CCS; 3. O’Neil, 39’8.25, CCS.