Longhorns roll over competition at Cambridge

    After a week of miserable conditions, the Chase County boys’ track team caught a break and had a warm, relatively wind-free day at the Don Stine Invite Saturday in Cambridge.
    CCS Head Coach Carl Zuege said the team was outside for practices all of Monday, then spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday inside.
    “Luckily, we were able to get out Thursday and Friday some and get some work done on the track,” Zuege said.
    The field events, relays and hurdles are what really suffer the most when the team can’t be outside doing its work, he said.
    A highlight of the day was the 1,600-meter run. Colin O’Neil, Brayan Reyes and Trevin Moreno went 1-2-3 and O’Neil was awarded the traveling plaque for the event.
    It was O’Neil’s first 1,600-meter race of the year.
    “Colin is a guy who just continues to grind and improve every week. It was very cool to see Colin and Lucy (Spady) bring home the Don Stine award for winning that race. It had been a while since a Chase County boy had won that award, but I think Lucy has won it a few times,” Zuege said.
    Spady won the race as a freshman in 2019, before COVID canceled the 2020 season. Last year, Spady finished second by 0.05.
    The official results were full of personal records. The top 23 runners in the 100-meter dash had PRs. While many came from freshmen and sophomores, junior Dawson Mollendor, who finished second, ran a personal best, as did senior Cayden White.
    In the 200-meter dash, 12 of the top 13 ran PRs. Mollendor won the event with a PR and freshman Jonathan Sosa was second.
    The trend continued in the 400-meter dash. Only three of the 25 runners didn’t have personal bests, but the Longhorns’ Ryan Bernhardt, first, Luis Co, third, and Sergio Quintana, sixth, all did.
    The Longhorns had multiple top eight finishers in most events and racked up nearly 200 points.
    The 3,200-meter run had four who placed for CCS, Moreno, second, Navy Smith, fourth, Andrew Wiest, seventh, and Peyton Dubas, eighth.
    Easton Fries swept the hurdle titles. CCS placed four in the top eight of the 110-high hurdles and two in the 300-meter hurdles.
    The Longhorns won the 400-meter relay, with James McArthur, Bernhardt, Thomas Reeves and Mollendor, the 1,600-meter relay with Kade Anderson, Stephen Murray, Fries and Bernhardt, and the 3,200-meter relay with O’Neil, Tyerman, Tristan Jablonski and Zach Herbert.
    Top performances in field events were Fries, second in the high jump; Bernhardt, third in the long jump; and Cooper Dillan, third in the shot put.
    Zuege said, after the week of weather that kept the team inside quite a bit, he was pleasantly surprised with his squad’s progress.
    “One nice thing was that with our inability to concentrate on some of our technical events, it gave us an opportunity to focus on conditioning, which I think contributed to some of our good marks on Saturday,” Zuege said, adding times seem to drop as the temperature rises.
Up next
    Zuege said the team has a few injury concerns, and quite a few bumps and bruises heading into Thursday’s Sutherland Invite.
    With a few quality days of practice this week, Zuege said they’ll go compete hard in Sutherland.
    The meet will be a large one with Arthur County, Dundy County Stratton, Garden County, Hershey, Hyannis, Paxton, Perkins County, Sandhills Valley, North Platte St. Pat’s, Sutherland and Wallace attending.
    Field events start at 10 a.m. CT. Running events will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the field events.
    After Saturday’s finals only events at Cambridge, Sutherland will have prelim races.
    “The Easter break comes at a time when our legs could use a little rest, then we get right back at it for the Chase County Invite on Tuesday when we get back from the break,” he added.
    The CCS Invite will start with field events at 9 a.m.
    Also at the meet will be Dundy County Stratton, Garden County, Ogallala and Perkins County.
    With only four weeks until districts on May 12, Zuege said coaches are getting a much clearer picture of where their athletes fit in.
    “With so many young guys on our team, it has taken some time to fit all of the pieces together, and we are still a work in progress, for sure. But, I think our relays are starting to take shape, and our guys are seeing more clearly what it is going to take over the next month to accomplish some of our team and individual goals,” Zuege said. Don Stine Invite boys results:
Team results—1. CCS, 189; 2. Cambridge, 104; 3. Southwest, 76; 4. McCook, 43; 5. Lexington, 40; 6. WP, 29; 7. Maywood-Hayes Center, 14; 8. Cozad, 10; 8. Arapahoe, 10; 10. Southern Valley, 7; 11. Ogallala, 1.
Individual results
100 Meters—1. Grant Walker, 11.02, WP; 2. Dawson Mollendor, 11.33, CCS; 5. James McArthur, 11.77, CCS; 6. Thomas Reeves, 11.94, CCS; 7. Jonathan Sosa, 12.04, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Mollendor, 23.80, CCS; 2. Sosa, 23.97, CCS; 5. Stephen Murray, 24.30, CCS.
400 Meters—1. Ryan Bernhardt, 54.12, CCS; 3. Luis Co, 55.69, CCS; 6. Sergio Quintana, 57.66, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Derek Trompke, 2:10.18, Cambridge, 3. Mason Tyerman, 2:22.58, CCS; 7. Sean Heerman, 2:26.72, CCS.
1600 Meters—1. Colin O’Neil, 5:19.95, CCS; 2. Brayan Reyes, 5:24.03, CCS; 3. Trevin Moreno, 5:29.90, CCS
3200 Meters—1. Carter Bowen, 11:30.39, Lexington, 2. Moreno, 11:55.21, CCS; 4. Navy Smith, 12:25.17, CCS; 7. Andrew Wiest, 13:00.20, CCS; 8. Peyton Dubas, 13:37.76, CCS.
110m Hurdles—1. Easton Fries, 15.83, CCS; 3. Jensen Olsen, 16.40, CCS; 4. Kade Anderson, 16.58, CCS; 7. Cameron Johnson, 18.52, CCS; 8. Kyle Jutten, 18.55, WP.
300m Hurdles—1. Fries, 41.84, CCS; 4. Anderson, 45.55, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. CCS (McArthur, Bernhardt, Thomas Reeves, Mollendor), 46.19.
4x400 Relay—1. CCS (Zach Herbert, Stephen Murray, Fries, Bernhardt), 3:40.25; 5. CCS (Co, Sergio Quintana, Tristan Jablonski, Anderson), 3:57.76.
4x800 Relay—1. CCS (Herbert, O’Neil, Tyerman, Jablonski), 9:14.26.
Shot Put—1. Tyree Smith, 39-08.50, Cozad; 3. Cooper Dillan, 38-11.00, CCS; 4. Olsen, 37-03.00, CCS; 7. Jesus Medina, 35-10.00, CCS.
Discus—1. Dahlton Wood, 135-02, Cambridge; 4. Dillan, 120-04, CCS; 6. Conner Tyerman, 117-06, CCS.
High Jump—1. Beau Bieker, 5-10.00, McCook; 2. Fries, 5-10.00, CCS; 7. Tyerman, 5-04.00, CCS; 8. Quintana, 5-02.00, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Kaden Day, 11-00.00, Southwest; 4. Mason Wallin, 10-06.00, CCS; 7. Malachi Christensen, 9-00.00, CCS.
Long Jump—1. Quintin Shaner, 21-00.50, Cambridge, 3. Ryan Bernhardt, 19-06.75, CCS.
Triple Jump—1. Shaner, 43-00.00, Cambridge, 5. Jablonski, 37-03.50, CCS; 6. McArthur, 37-02.25, CCS.