Culture carries team to championship

    It’s been over 50 years since Imperial has celebrated a boys state championship, a 1971 sand greens title, in fact.
    Now Chase County can claim a boys state track championship.
    CCS claimed a 66-52 win over Battle Creek Saturday. Going into the weekend predictions placed the Longhorns 0.5 points behind Battle Creek.
    Head Coach Carl Zuege said he knew CCS had a chance but expected it to be tough.
    “We knew that both Battle Creek and St. Pat’s would put a good number of points up, and we also knew that Cedar Catholic and Norfolk Catholic had some athletes that would keep them in the team race,” Zuege said.
    But the Longhorns bought in to the team culture, so Zuege knew Chase County had plenty of horses pulling in the same direction.
    “I think the difference for us was our depth and the number of guys who scored points for us. I can say with certainty that no other team in Class C had as many guys wearing medals at the end of the meet as we did,” Zuege said.
    CCS won two individual titles, Easton Fries in the 300-meter hurdles and Mason Wallin in the pole vault.
    The 1,600-meter relay put the feather in the cap for the weekend with a win to end the meet.
    Although CCS just needed to place to win the team title, Jonathan Sosa, Tristan Jablonski, Stephen Murry and Fries wanted to end the meet in style.
    “I went to the tent and talked to Tristan, Jonathan and Stephen after Thomas Reeves finished the 200 and told them that we only needed one point from them to win the meet. They let me know in no uncertain terms that they were planning to score 10 points, not just one,” Zuege said.
    The relay took two more seconds off of their personal best, and they were able to finish the meet off in the best way possible, Zuege added.
    “I think Jonny got us out to a great start, and we just rolled from there. Both Tristan and Stephen ran their best splits of the season, and Easton was able to finish it off,” he continued.
The win capped a huge day for Fries. The junior ran in the 110-meter hurdle finals and open 400, getting second in both, plus his winning runs in the 300-hurdles and the relay.
    “I think the biggest thing to bear in mind about Easton is the amount of pressure that he had to be feeling. We asked him to run a VERY difficult schedule over the span of the two day meet, and his last 2.5 hours on Saturday were just incredible,” Zuege said, adding Fries had to feel the weight of expectation on him.
    “Easton never complains, he just goes out and competes. All of our guys can walk with a little extra swagger because Easton is on their team” according to Zuege.
Even though CCS took 15 guys to the state track meet, this was absolutely an entire team effort, Zuege added.
“The work that all 51 of our athletes did throughout the year was the foundation of our success this season. These guys truly went out and competed for each other, and that is what makes this team title so special,” he said.
After six team members qualified for state last year, Zuege said it’s unbelievable to come so far in a year with no new athletes joining the team other than freshmen.

Zuege said he’s proud of his athletes for the time and effort they put into improving and thanked the parents, school and support staff who helped make that possible.
Assistant coaches for the team include Holden Dreiling, Justin Anderson, Josh Fries, Dan Lenners, Karli Hale, Troy Hauxwell, Beau McConnell and Debbie Dahlkoetter-Richardson.
Zuege also credited the school’s football coaches, led by Nathan Gaswick, basketball coaches, led by Chris Bartels, and wrestling coaches, led by Matt Vlasin, for the culture they’ve helped establish, as well.
Culture of teams
Zuege said the boys team has had a really strong track program for the past seven or eight years, it just hasn’t found the level of success in Omaha that the girls team has.
“There’s been healthy competition between the boys and girls teams, but it’s a family,” Zuege said.
The boys squad took note of how excited the girls team was for them and Zuege said the boys team has been equally proud of the girls.
With teams that share coaches and training facilities, Zuege and Hauxwell, activities director and girls head coach, have picked each others’ brains.
Hauxwell said he’s excited for Zuege to coach the championship team.
Zuege said it’s a relief to have the season end with a win.
“So much has to fall your way and this year it went our way,” he said.
It’s been an emotional year for the school and members of the track team with several people losing family members and friends in the past year.
Zuege said he’s glad Fred Bessler, Paul Orvis and Rex Heckenlively, who made up the track coaching staff for 25 years, were able to see the Longhorns bring home a state title.
“All of us have benefited from the work they did,” Zuege said.
Girls tie for runners up
The CCS girls capped a three-year run by tying Kearney Catholic for the Class C state runner up finish.
After back-to-back state titles, Hauxwell said people can forget how hard it is to win state.
With CCS falling just three points short to Bishop Neumann, Hauxwell said he’s played out a lot of different scenarios for where those points could have come from.
But the team had surprises along the way.
The 3,200-relay team won the meet’s first running event.
With freshmen Miranda Spady and Ashlyn Heermann teaming up with sophomores Olivia Spady and Landree McNair, Hauxwell said the young group embraced the team’s motto for the season, Raz Chazak, to be courageous and strong.
The Longhorns were young this year and coaches encouraged them to not be afraid, but go and compete.
While the relay waited in the staging area for their turn to run, they were intimidated listening to the teams around them compare splits and times.
Little did they know the relay would be the Longhorns’ only first place finish.
After the race Hauxwell said he asked them if the risks they took were worth the joy they experienced. The answer was a resounding yes.