Longhorns double up on competition at home invite

Area boys track teams stood no chance against Chase County last Wednesday at the Longhorns’ home invite.
CCS took down second place Ogallala 251-124. Perkins County came in third with 99 points.
The meet was originally scheduled for Tuesday but bumped to Wednesday due to forecasted poor weather.
The move paid off with a partly cloudy sky and breeze throughout the day.
Head Coach Carl Zuege said the meet certainly ended up on the much nicer day between the two.
“I really don’t think we could have effectively run a track meet on Tuesday. As a coach I certainly appreciate the flexibility of our staff, administration, and volunteers in making Wednesday a possibility,” he added.
As usual with their home meet, the Longhorns took the opportunity to get as many athletes entered into events as possible.
CCS had 53 athletes compete.
“Our meet allowing extended entries really gives our guys a chance to get some work in,” Zuege said.
With that many athletes competing, 24 personal bests were set.
Zuege said his team talked about PRs heading into the meet.
“We know that marks are going to start getting better and better from this point on, and some of it is training, some is weather (hopefully), and some is simply opportunity. We were thrilled with the number of PR’s we recorded, especially with our younger guys,” Zuege said.
CCS won nine events, including Thomas Reeves in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, Haven Hauxwell in the 1,600-meter run, Mason Wallin in the pole vault and James McArthur in the triple jump.
Easton Fries swept both hurdle races in meet record times.
CCS also took wins in the 400-meter relay, Jonathan Sosa, Tucker Mollendor, Reeves and Wallin, as well as the 1,600-meter relay, Sosa, Tristan Jablonski, Kole Clevenger and Fries.
The Longhorns placed six in the top eight of pole vault, five in the 110-meter hurdles, plus four in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, 300-meter hurdles, shot put, discus, and triple jump.
Saturday’s Hershey Invite didn’t fair as well as Chase County’s and the Panthers canceled their home meet due to the weather.
Although Zuege thought it would have been a tough day in some areas, he would have liked to have competed on Saturday.
“With little wind and cool conditions, our long and middle distance runners (who have been battling wind all season), would have had an opportunity to run in favorable conditions for once,” he continued.
Instead the team adjusted its training and got in  a really good workout on Friday, and planned Monday and Tuesday to do the same with team members who are not going to the JV meet in McCook on Monday.
“Nine days is a pretty long layoff without a meet for this time of the season, so we have to really focus on our practice plans in order to have everyone ready for the conference meet,” Zuege said.
Hershey has another chance to host a meet with the SPVA meet scheduled for Friday.
North Platte St. Pat’s and Perkins County are expected to put in strong showings.
“The conference is loaded with some really good individuals this season, which as I have mentioned has a lot to do with the success the SPVA teams have been enjoying lately,” Zuege said, adding Chase County’s depth and ability to win several events will hopefully be what helps the Longhorns to win another conference title.
“St. Pat’s and Perkins County have the ability to score a lot of points, so we will have to perform at a high level, but I think we will be prepared to do just that,” Zuege continued.
Remaining varsity meets include the Best of the Midwest April 30 and the Dundy County Stratton Twilight May 3.
The District C-9 meet will be May 9 in Bayard.

Chase County Invite
Team scores—1. Chase County, 251; 2. Ogallala, 124; 3. Perkins County, 99; 4. Hershey, 75; 5. Dundy County Stratton, 59; 6. Garden County, 27; 7. Maxwell, 20.
Individual results
100 Meters—1. Thomas Reeves, 11.17, CCS; 7. Mason Wallin, 11.71, CCS; 8. Tucker Mollendor, 11.85, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Reeves, 22.85, CCS.
400 Meters—1. Chase Moorhead, 51.38, Hershey; 7. Jackson Cyboron, 57.19, CCS; 8. Kaden McArthur, 57.54, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Mason McGreer, 2:01.53, Perkins County; 2. Luis Co, 2:08.48, CCS; 6. Brandon Chavira, 2:16.74, CCS; 7. Krayton Paisley, 2:17.85, CCS.
1600 Meters—1. Haven Hauxwell, 4:53.07, CCS; 2. Andrew Wiest, 5:01.59, CCS; 7. Trevin Moreno, 5:16.69, CCS; 8. Jaret Peterson, 5:19.07, CCS.
3200 Meters—1. McGreer, 10:22.27, Perkins County; 2. Hauxwell, 10:28.43, CCS; 4. Wiest, 11:00.03, CCS; 7. Navy Smith, 11:39.02, CCS; 8. T. Moreno, 11:59.60, CCS.
110m Hurdles—1. Easton Fries, 14.28, CCS; 2. Jensen Olsen, 15.26, CCS; 6. Tyler O’Neil, 16.47, CCS; 7. Scott Hoover, 17.85, CCS; 8. Lukas Fries, 17.95, CCS.
300m Hurdles—1. E. Fries, 39.27, CCS; 3. T. O’Neil, 44.02, CCS; 4. Hoover, 45.90, CCS; 8. L. Fries, 49.69, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. CCS (Jonathan Sosa, Mollendor, Reeves, Wallin), 44.1; 6. CCS (Malachi Christensen, Sean Heermann, Westyn Mendenhall, Spencer Kelley), 49.04.
4x100 Throwers Relay—1. PCS, 47.99; 2. CCS (Jesus Medina, Ray Murillo, Peterson, Cooper Dillan), 48.90; 3. CCS (Jaqueb Hoover, Cristobal Tarango, Brad Speaker, Trace Terryberry), 51.88.
4x400 Relay—1. CCS (Sosa, Tristan Jablonski, Kole Clevenger, E. Fries), 3:32.26.
4x800 Relay—1. PCS, 8:37.67; 2. CCS (Co, Jablonski, Brextin Moreno,  Paisley), 8:43.74; 3. CCS (K. McArthur, Brandon Chavira, Evan O’Neil, Cyboron), 9:22.12.
Shot Put—1. Brock Bailey, 52’6.5, Dundy County Stratton; 2. Murillo, 48’4.5, CCS; 3. Dillan, 45’0, CCS; 4. Medina, 44’10, CCS; 6. Noah Rau, 41’11, CCS.
Discus—1. Cooper Hill, 152’2, Hershey; 2. Rau, 151’4, CCS; 3. Dillan, 146’11, CCS; 4. Peterson, 137’9, CCS; 6. Murillo, 135’5.5, CCS.
High Jump—1. Jackson Kerchal, 6’4, Dundy County Stratton; 3. Cesar Valencia, 5’8, CCS; 5. James Bomba, 5’6, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Mason Wallin, 14’0, CCS; 3. Malachi Christensen, 12’6, CCS; 5. Spencer Kelley, 10’6, CCS; 5. Sean Heermann, 10’6, CCS; 7. Tate Hubbard, 10’6, CCS; 8. Westyn Mendenhall, 10’0, CCS.
Long Jump—1. Jayden Curtis, 21’6.5, Ogallala; 4. Mollendor, 20’5.5, CCS; 6. Clevenger, 19’10, CCS; 7. Camron Lempke, 19’8.5, CCS.
Triple Jump—1. James McArthur, 41’6, CCS; 3. T. O’Neil, 40’11, CCS; 4. Clevenger, 40’8.25, CCS; 8. Adan Mireles, 38’7.25, CCS.