CCS cross country team hits it hard, now rests up for SPVA

The Chase County cross country team faced a quick turnaround over the last week with the Ogallala Invite last Thursday and the UNK Invite Monday.
The Longhorn boys team finished sixth out of 15 at Ogallala. The meet included some of Class C’s best teams. Gothenburg, team champ, is ranked first in Class C. Broken Bow is sixth and Alliance, McCook and CCS are all receiving votes. All are in the C5 district coming up Oct. 12.
Head Coach Carl Zuege said the rankings are fun and athletes like to look through them, but there are just so many variables in cross country, like the course, the weather, a team’s schedule and training, that there is really no great way to predict how teams who are close in talent will do from week to week.
While Zuege felt the Longhorns put forth a nice effort at Ogallala, he said no one was satisfied with sixth place.
“We did not have our best day as a team, so we will continue to train and hopefully get it right three weeks from now at districts,” Zuege said.
Haven Hauxwell led Chase County’s individual results with a sixth place finish.
Junior Brayan Reyes ran his second best time of the season and took 26th.
Zuege said Reyes’ performance has been a really nice surprise this season.
“We know from track season that he had good speed, and he is a really hard working kid, but to come out and elevate his level of performance so quickly has been great to see. And, because he is so new to this sport, he will continue to improve throughout the rest of this season and next season,” Zuege added.
Tessa Smith had the Longhorn girls teams best finish.
Up against some bigger schools at the meet, Zuege said his girls team, including Smith, Esmeralda Lopez, Faith Hauxwell and Paige Nickless, don’t worry too much about other teams—they are really good about going out there and competing for each other and trying to improve each week —which is exactly what we ask from them.
CCS athletes were encouraged to do some light running between Thursday and Monday’s meets.
“We encourage the kids to rest, get some good stretching and easy running in, and try to have their bodies ready for Monday. I don’t think there is really much residual soreness or fatigue with three days in between, but mentally it can be difficult to get yourself prepared to compete at a high level again so soon,” Zuege said.
Monday started off with Class B girls at noon CT, followed by Class A girls, the Class B and Class A boys. Class D girls took to the course at 2:30 p.m. CT, followed by Class C girls then Class D boys. Class C boys was scheduled for a 4 p.m. CT start.
Zuege said there were some good performance at the invite.
“It was pretty warm today so times were probably a little slower than I had anticipated across the board,” he added.
Out of 193 girl runners in Class C, Smith finished 109th to lead CCS.
“The girls did a nice job as it was only the first or second time that all of them had run this course,” Zuege said.
The Chase County boys finished 17th out of 39 teams. A total of 301 boys ran in the race.
H. Hauxwell was the Longhorns’ top finisher, coming in 30th.
Also on the course were Reyes, Navy Smith, Andrew Wiest, Spencer Kelley, Connor Einspahr,  Kevin Dannatt, Jesus Juarez and Brandon Chavira.
“On the boys side I thought we had some really good efforts. I thought that Brayan Reyes, Navy Smith, Connor Einspahr, and  Kevin Dannatt really stood out as it was the first time on the czourse for most of those guys,” Zuege said.
Now all that remains on the Longhorns’ schedule is the SPVA meet in Grant Oct. 5 and the C5 district meet in Ogallala Oct. 12.
“As we get nearer to the district meet, we are going to need everyone’s best race in order to qualify as a team for the state meet. Our district is absolutely loaded, so to be in the top three of the district will be difficult, but these guys are certainly capable. We will spend this next week really trying to fine tune our speed and speed endurance. Hopefully we can get completely healthy and begin to peak at the right time,” Zuege said.
Other teams in the district will be Alliance, Broken Bow, Chadron, Cozad, Gothenburg, Hershey, Holdrege, McCook, Mitchell, Ogallala and Sidney.

Ogallala Invite
Boys varsity team scores—1. Gothenburg, 30; 2. NPSP, 50; 3. Alliance, 69; 4. Gering, 69; 5. Hershey, 97; 6. Chase County, 104; 7. Broken Bow, 123; 8. McCook, 130; 9. Perkins County, 138; 10. Cozad, 174; 11. Sidney, 182; 12. Kimball, 225; 13. Paxton, 247; 14. Sutherland, 261; 15. Chadron, 264.
Boys varsity individual results—1. Mason McGreer, 15:59.61, Perkins County; 2. Tyler Hetz, 16:02.85, Gothenburg; 3. Jarrett Miles, 16:47.39, NPSP; 4. Axton Stone, 16:47.62, Gering; 5. Elijah Goodell, 16:58.93, Perkins County; 6. Haven Hauxwell, 17:10.55, CCS; 7. Ethan Olsen, 17:12.69, Gothenburg; 8. Trevor Zurn, 17:13.94, Alliance; 9. Parker Graves, 17:32.93, Gothenburg; 10. Grant Cappel, 17:43.46, McCook; 11. Nathan Seiler, 17:46.99, Gering; 12. Nathan Sager, 17:49.34, Gothenburg; 13. Porter Connick, 17:49.96, NPSP; 14. Devin Graham, 17:50.35, Alliance; 15. Jordan Arensdorf, 17:54.31, Hershey; Brayan Reyes, 18:23.35, CCS; Navy Smith, 18:32.40, CCS; Andrew Wiest, 19:24.75, CCS; Spencer Kelley, 19:51.03, CCS; Trevin Moreno, 20:03.90, Chase County.
Boys JV team scores—1. Sidney, 20; 2. Broken Bow, 34; 3. Hershey, 52; 4. Chase County, 73; 5. Perkins County, 77; 6. Alliance, 96; 7. Gothenburg, 105; 8. McCook, 133; 9. Kimball, 150.
Boys JV individual results— 1. Jashawn Davenport, 19:34.67, Sidney; 2. Michael Forster, 19:42.06, Broken Bow; 3. Jackson Arensdorf, 20:02.42, Hershey; 4. Tristan Lausen, 20:02.49, Sidney; 5. Garrett Johnk, 20:17.37, Broken Bow; 6. Emmett Palmer, 20:20.71, Broken Bow; 7. Dru Weimer, 20:38.54, Sidney; 8. Jonah Graham, 20:41.56, Sidney; 9. Connor Einspahr, 21:06.95, CCS; 10. Brett Morgan, 21:13.85, Hershey; 11. Ty Kreis, 21:16.56, Gothenburg; 12. John Meza, 21:26.37, Sidney; 13. Jacob Hatcher, 21:33.45, Perkins County; 14. Filippo Bandera, 21:37.85, Alliance; 15. Emmanuel Kiogora, 21:41.39, Perkins County; Kevin Dannatt, 21:49.59, CCS; 19. Jesus Juarez, 22:05.69, CCS; Brandon Chavira, 23:01.52, CCS; Kris Burke, 23:50.06, CCS; James Bomba, 24:23.34, Chase County
Girls varsity team scores—1. Gering, 43; 2. Sidney, 47; 3. Chadron, 63; 4. Broken Bow, 66; 5. Ogallala, 83; 6. Gothenburg, 83; 7. McCook, 86; 8. Paxton, 133; 9. Chase County, 163; 10. Cozad, 168.
Girls individual results—, 1. Lindee Henning, 19:37.25, Ogallala; 2. Talissa Tanquary, 20:02.42, Sidney; 3. Emma Cappel, 20:11.90, McCook; 4. Brecken Gale, 21:27.33, McCook; 5. Demi Seelhoff, 21:44.51, Gering; 6. Adeline Pinkston, 21:53.43, Gothenburg; 7. Alison Bradford, 21:59.90, Gering; 8. Kylee Kampfe, 22:10.22, Sidney; 9. Ashlyn Schauda, 22:10.71, Broken Bow; 10. Kiarra Jonas, 22:29.57, Gothenburg; 11. Lillie Uhing, 22:29.82, Chadron; 12. Jentsyn Fuller, 22:36.44, Chadron; 13. Shirley Cotant, 22:38.22, Mitchell; 14. Samantha Marin, 22:47.90, Creek Valley; 15. Jenna Davis, 22:58.73, Gering; Tessa Smith, 24:20.26, CCS; Esmeralda Lopez, 25:40.93, CCS; Paige Nickless, 28:24.01, CCS; Faith Hauxwell, 29:01.61, Chase County.

UNK Invite
Boys team scores— 1. Gothenburg, 43; 2. Lincoln Christian, 49; 3. Mount Michael Benedictine, 90; 4. Fort Calhoun, 108; 5. Arlington, 149; 6. Syracuse, 151; 7. Holdrege, 167; 8. Minden, 224; 9. Milford, 225; 10. Platteview, 235; 11. Alliance, 257; 12. Aurora, 269; 13. Roncalli Catholic-Brownell Talbot, 270; 14. Palmyra, 283; 15. Columbus Scotus, 284; 16. Broken Bow, 288; 17. Chase County, 288.
Boys individual results— 1. Gus Lampe, 16:43.38, Roncalli Catholic-Brownell Talbot; 2. A.J. Raszler, 16:47.74, Platteview; 3. Tyler Hetz, 16:47.82, Gothenburg; 4. Carter Hohlen, 16:52.38, Lincoln Christian; 5. Avery Carter, 17:01.56, Milford; 6. Michael Rodgers, 17:09.23, Mount Michael Benedictine; 7. Parker Graves, 17:10.58, Gothenburg; 8. Nolan May, 17:20.86, Arlington; 9. Samuel Cederburg, 17:25.45, Minden; 10. Jackson Feauto, 17:26.71, Lincoln Christian; Haven Hauxwell, 18:01.18, CCS; Brayan Reyes, 18:45.56, CCS; Navy Smith, 18:49.86, CCS; Andrew Wiest, 20:13.81, CCS; Spencer Kelley, 21:16.45, CCS; Connor Einspahr, 21:31.76, CCS; Kevin Dannatt, 21:45.93, CCS; Jesus Juarez, 22:34.25, CCS; Brandon Chavira, 23:49.91, Chase County
Girls individual results— 1. Talissa Tanquary, 20:14.21, Sidney; 2. Liston Crotty, 20:30.24, Auburn; 3. Lydia Stewart, 20:32.53, Platteview; 4. Emilyn Kavan, 20:41.29, Columbus Scotus; 5. Emma Cappel, 20:41.54, McCook; 6. Hailey O’Daniel, 20:42.34, Arlington; 7. Hailey Hengtgen, 20:59.31, Palmyra; 8. Hannah Heinrich, 21:01.20, Columbus Scotus; 9. Mary Faltys, 21:05.63, Columbus Scotus; 10. Brooklyn Kermmoade, 21:17.54, Platteview; Tessa Smith, 25:37.69, CCS; Esmeralda Lopez, 27:36.74, CCS; Faith Hauxwell, 28:54.41, CCS; Paige Nickless, 31:46.97, Chase County.