Longhorn boys bring home championship from Ogallala

With a solid, all-around effort, the Chase County boys track team repeated at last week’s Ed Moore Invite in Ogallala.
Competing against mostly Class B teams, CCS won seven of 17 events and placed three in the top eight in four events.
Head Coach Carl Zuege said he talked to his team about how balanced this team is.
“I just said to the team today that our balance throughout the 17 events is probably the best we have had since I’ve been coaching here,” Zuege said, adding that the Longhorns are getting contributions all over the place, and it is great to see so many guys contributing.
“We know we are going to get outstanding performances from guys like Easton (Fries), Jensen (Olsen), Jaret (Peterson), Mason (Wallin), and the guys on our relays. But, some other guys really stepped up, too,” Zuege continued, highlighting sophomore Noah Rau’s win in discus, senior Ray Murillo’s fourth-place finish in the shot, senior Tyler O’Neil taking second in the triple jump and sixth in the 100-meter high hurdles, as well as jumpers like Kole Clevenger, James McArthur, and Tucker Mollendor.
Overall, CCS won the team title 155.5-131 over Gothenburg this fall’s Class C State Champion in cross country.
“Our throws and hurdles produced a lot of points, but when you look further you see guys like Haven Hauxwell, Krayton Paisley, and Trevin Moreno getting us points in the distance races. Thomas (Reeves), of course, scored well in the sprints. Our relays ran strong once again,” Zuege said.
Wallins’s performance in the pole vault was tremendous, Zuege said, pointing out that Wallin’s winning vault of 14’6” puts him at the top of Class C as Wallin looks to repeat as state champion.
Triple jump stood out for Zuege, as well.
Besides O’Neil’s second-place finish, Clevenger was third and McArthur placed fifth.
“Zach Herbert’s 5th place in the 400 was also a really nice performance,” Zuege added.
Fries claimed first place in both hurdle races, the 400-meter dash and joined with Clevenger, Tristan Jablonski and Reeves to win the 1,600-meter relay. Fries was named the male athlete of the meet.
Fries, Olsen and O’Neil placed first, third and sixth in the 110-meter hurdles.
Peterson won the shot put to give CCS a sweep of the throws. Peterson was also third in discus. Rau finished seventh in the shot put.
Hauxwell was runner up in both distance races. Trevin Moreno and Andrew Wiest were sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 1,600-meter run.
Reeves was second in the 200-meter dash and third in the 100-meter dash.
The 400-meter relay, Camron Lempke, Tucker Mollendor, Reeves and Austin Smith was second, as was the 3,200-meter relay, Luis Co, Jablonski, Krayton Paisley and Herbert.
Up next
CCS will travel to Cambridge Saturday for the Don Stine Invite. With rain and wind in the forecast, there is a chance the meet will be moved to a different date.
The meet is always a popular one since JV entries are accepted and Zuege said  there are going to be several schools there with athletes that are posting some really good marks.
“Our biggest challenge on Saturday will be trying to get as many athletes entered in the meet as we can. We won’t have the luxury of entering a full JV team this year, so we might have to get a little creative trying to fit around 55 boys into 17 events,” Zuege said.
Although Zuege said he probably doesn’t have as much knowledge about some of these teams as he does about the SPVA teams, he knows that Maywood/Hayes Center, coming off a Class D2 state runner up performance in basketball, will have some good athletes there.
“Cambridge always has some good athletes. I know there is a freshman thrower from Dundy County Stratton (Brock Bailey) who has thrown very well, along with several other really good athletes from Dundy County Stratton,” he added.
Other teams at Cambridge will be Arapahoe, Cozad, Hershey, McCook JV, Southern Valley and Wauneta-Palisade.

Mens—1. Chase County, 155.5; 2. Gothenburg, 131; 3. Cozad, 75; 4. Sidney, 73.5; 5. Ogallala, 42; 6. Mitchell, 27; 7. Alliance, 18; 8. Chadron, 2.
Mens Results
100 Meters—1. Isak Doty, 11.07, Sidney; 3. Thomas Reeves, 11.12, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Doty, 22.78, Sidney; 2. Reeves, 23.06, CCS; 8. Austin Smith, 24.83, CCS.
400 Meters—1. Easton Fries, 51.07, CCS; 5. Zach Herbert, 54.04, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Nathan Sager, 2; 06.66, Gothenburg; 5. Krayton Paisley, 2; 12.16, CCS.
1600 Meters—1. Tyler Hetz, 4:50.47, Gothenburg; 6. Trevin Moreno, 5:08.93, CCS; 7. Andrew Wiest, 5:17.52, CCS.
3200 Meters—1. Tyler Hetz, 10; 23.31, Gothenburg; 2. Haven Hauxwell, 10:25.64, CCS.
110m Hurdles—1. Easton Fries, 14.59, CCS; 3. Jensen Olsen, 15.46, CCS; 6. Tyler O’Neil, 16.80, CCS.
300m Hurdles—1. Fries, 39.25, CCS; 8. O’Neil, 44.44, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. Sidney, 43.82; 2. CCS (Camron Lempke, Tucker Mollendor, Reeves, Smith), 44.62.
4x400 Relay—1. CCS (Kole Clevenger, Tristan Jablonski, Reeves, Fries), 3:31.25.
4x800 Relay—1. Gothenburg, 8:27.59;  2. CCS (Luis Co, Jablonski, Paisley, Herbert), 8:44.33.
Shot Put—1. Jaret Peterson, 48’4, CCS; 4. Ray Murillo, 46’1, CCS; 7. Noah Rau, 43’3, CCS.
Discus—1. Noah Rau, 152’ 9, CCS; 3. Jaret Peterson, 146’ 3.5, CCS.
High Jump—1. Gage Strauss, 6’ 1, Cozad; 6. Clevenger, 5’ 9, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Mason Wallin, 14’ 6, CCS.
Long Jump—1. Landon Riddle, 21’ 8.5, Sidney; 6. Clevenger, 20’ 4.75, CCS; 8. Mollendor, 19’ 7.25, CCS.
Triple Jump—1. Chayden Hoffmaster, 41’ 4.75, Cozad; 2. O’Neil, 40’ 11, CCS; 3. Clevenger, 40’ 10.5, CCS; 5. James McArthur, 39’ 8.5, CCS.