CCS XC battles heat, hills and opponents at McCook

    It doesn’t matter if you’re a golfer or a cross country runner, McCook’s Heritage Hills Golf Course provides plenty of challenges.
    “I would say that McCook is probably the most difficult course that we run. There are a few extreme climbs, most notably one right at the very end of the race,” CCS Head Coach Carl Zuege said.
    Temperatures in the mid-90s didn’t help Chase County runners Thursday at the McCook Invite.
    The combination of the hilly route and hot weather led organizers to shorten the challenging course from 5,000 meters to 3,700 meters.
    Zuege said knocking 1,300 meters off the course was pretty arbitrary.
    Organizers just cut off one section of the race and then measured it, Zuege said, and wound up at 3,700 meters.
    “I thought that for the most part everyone handled the weather pretty well. We didn’t have any major breakdowns during the race, but I know that each of them was glad to get it finished,” Zuege said.
    The meet was loaded with good runners from all classes in the girls’ and boys’ divisions, he added.
    Jordan Jablonski was Chase County’s top overall finisher.  Jablonski, coming off an illness, battled and ran a nice race, Zuege said. Jablonski finished one place out of a medal at 16th.
    Zuege said his boys’ team had several pretty good performances and complimented Colin O’Neil and Andrew Weist for handling the hills well.
    Trevin Moreno was the Longhorns’ top finisher, placing 18th. Zuege said Moreno and Navy Smith did a great job for their first time running at McCook.
    Zuege was also pleased with Paige Nickless’s sixth place finish in the girls’ junior high division and Haven Hauxwell’s win in the boys’ junior high division, which Zuege believes is a first for CCS.
Up next
    The Longhorns will be in Ogallala Thursday, then at the UNK Invite in Kearney Monday.
    “The cool thing about that is that Ogallala is where we will have districts and UNK is on the state course, so our runners will get a preview of what districts and state will look like in a few weeks,” Zuege said.
    Ogallala’s meet will be held at Crandall Creek Golf Course southeast of Ogallala. Junior high athletes will run a 3,000-meter course, while varsity athletes will tackle a 5,000-meter course.
    Varsity girls will start the meet off at 3 p.m. MT.
    Zuege expects it to be a very fast meet full of ranked runners once again.
    It will be the final junior high meet of the season.
    Monday’s UNK meet will be held at the Kearney Country Club.
    Running at McCook helps prepare for the UNK meet and state meet because of the similarity of the hilly courses, Zuege said.
    Parking will not be available on site and fans will need to take a shuttle.
    Meet information, including t-shirt sales, parking, course and fan maps, is available at https://lopers.com/sports/2009/10/27/MXC_1027091041.aspx.
    Tickets are available online at https://lopers.com/sports/2021/7/14/hometownticket-website.aspx and CCS Activities Director Troy Hauxwell encourages fans to get their tickets ahead of time.
    Cash will not be accepted for tickets purchased at the gates.
    Class C girls will run at 12:30 p.m. CT. Class C boys will run at 1:30 p.m. CT.
    The awards for both groups will be handed out at 2 p.m. CT.