With meet under its belt, CCS boys track ready to go to battle in Ogallala

Although the injury bug has bitten several members of the Chase County boys track team, the Longhorns had the vast majority of their athletes competing Friday at the Perkins County Pre-Season meet.
CCS took advantage of unlimited entries to get all athletes involved. The 100-meter dash features 13 CCS runners and 12 Longhorn throwers stepped into the ring.
Head Coach Carl Zuege said it was nice to get out on the track and get some times and distances in the books.
“Overall I was pleased with the entire effort. This was the first high school track meet for a lot of guys, so I was anxious to see what everyone could do,” he added.
Leading the way for CCS with first place finishes were Thomas Reeves, 100 and 200; Zach Herbert, 400; Krayton Paisley, 800; Haven Hauxwell, 1,600; Easton Fries, 110- and 300-meter hurdles; Jaret Peterson, shot put and discus; Mason Wallin, pole vault; and Tucker Mollendor, long jump.
“I thought there were already some awfully impressive marks for a first meet out. Mason Wallin cleared 13’6 easily on a short pole and a short approach. Tucker Mollendor’s 21’0 long jump certainly caught my attention, and Easton already has posted a time under 40 seconds in the 300 hurdles, which is really fast,” Zuege said.
Zuege also thought the CCS throwers stood out.
Peterson and Cooper Dillan, both state qualifiers last year, both threw personal bests over 150 feet.
“All of our throwers seemed to have a good day,” Zuege said.
CCS had the top five marks in shot put and six of the top eight best throws in discus.
Distance runners are also off to good starts, according to Zuege.
“I thought our distance kids performed well, especially Haven Hauxwell and Andrew Wiest. Zach Herbert came out with a 2:07 in the 800, which is a very good early time,” Zuege noted.
Despite taking note of the good performances, Zuege said there are certainly some areas his team can improve.
“But the fact that we were running into the wind affected some of our marks, and it got pretty dang cold out there the last couple hours of the meet. I think we will see some nice improvements at Ogallala next week,” he said.
The Longhorns will travel to the Ed Moore Invite in Ogallala Thursday.
The meet is a step up in competition with CCS being the only Class C school in attendance.
Chase County won the meet last year, but Zuege expects strong performances from many of the schools there.
“Gothenburg, Cozad, Sidney, Ogallala...just a bunch of really good track schools will be there,” Zuege said.
He continued, saying it is probably the best overall competition CCS will see until perhaps the Best of the Midwest meet, or possibly even until the state meet.
“We were able to win the meet last season, and I thought that really gave us a boost of confidence,” Zuege added.
Several injuries have coaches concerned but hopeful. Zuege noted that Jensen Olsen is close to being ready to start the season, but Jonathan Sosa and Brayan Reyes will continue their recoveries for a while.
“ All three of those guys will make a big impact when they return. We have a few other younger guys who are battling some injuries, but luckily we have pretty good depth in most areas,” Zuege said.
With nice weather expected for Thursday, Zuege anticipates  some excellent marks to come out of this meet.
Perkins County
Pre-Season Meet
100 Meters—1. Thomas Reeves, 11.35, CCS; 3. Tucker Mollendor, 11.99, CCS; 5. Kole Clevenger, 12.04, CCS; 6. Mason Wallin, 12.14, CCS; 7. James McArthur, 12.24, CCS; 8. Austin Smith, 12.26, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Reeves, 22.90, CCS; 3. Smith, 24.73, CCS; 4. Mollendor, 24.78, CCS; 8. Tate Hubbard, 26.04, CCS.
400 Meters—1. Zach Herbert, 55.60, CCS; 2. Sergio Quintana, 56.89, CCS; 4. Jackson Cyboron, 58.58, CCS; 5. Kaden McArthur, 1:01.04, CCS; 8. Fabian Arelin, 1:06.89, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Krayton Paisley, 2:13.90, CCS; 3. Evan O’Neil, 2:24.48, CCS.
1600 Meters—1. Haven Hauxwell, 4:50.81, CCS; 2. Andrew Wiest, 5:10.68, CCS; 4. Trevin Moreno, 5:25.65, CCS; 5. Navy Smith, 5:30.84, CCS.
3200 Meters—1. Mason McGreer, 10:11.88, Perkins County; 2. Hauxwell, 10:34.10, CCS; 3. Wiest, 11:27.79, CCS; 4. Smith, 12:02.23, CCS; 5. Moreno, 12:06.21, CCS.
110m Hurdles—1. Easton Fries, 15.10, CCS; 2. Tyler O’Neil, 17.34, CCS; 3. Scott Hoover, 18.73, CCS.
300m Hurdles—1. Fries, 39.62, CCS; 2. O’Neil, 46.99, CCS; 3. Hoover, 47.17, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. CCS (Camron Lempke, Mollendor, Reeves, Smith), 45.01.
4x100 Throwers Relay—1. Perkins County, 49.46; 2. CCS (Trace Terryberry, Brad Speaker, Cristobal Tarango, Jaqueb Hoover), 51.60; 4. CCS (Cooper Dillan, Jaret Peterson, Jesus Medina, Ray Murillo), 54.91.
4x400 Relay—1. CCS (Luis Co, Tristan Jablonski, Reeves, Fries), 3:38.61.
4x800 Relay—Perkins County, 8:35.72; 2. CCS (Jablonski, Quintana, Co, Herbert) 8:54.06; 3. CCS (Brextin Moreno, Brandon Chavira, Kaden McArthur, Krayton Paisley), 9:18.78.
Shot Put—1. Jaret Peterson, 45’9, CCS; 2. Ray Murillo, 44’11, CCS; 3. Noah Rau, 43’9.75, CCS; 4. Jesus Medina, 42’10.25, CCS; 5. Cooper Dillan, 42’5, CCS.
Discus—1. Peterson, 157’6, CCS; 2. Dillan, 152’11, CCS; 3. Rau, 138’0, CCS; 4. Medina, 131’8, CCS; 6. O’Neil, 127’7, CCS; 8. Murillo, 119’0, CCS.
High Jump—Aden Acton, 5’10, Wauneta-Palisade; 2. Clevenger, 5’10, CCS; 5. Cesar Valencia, 5’0, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Wallin, 13’6, CCS; 2. Malachi Christensen, 11’6, CCS; 3. Spencer Kelley, 11’0, CCS; 4. Hubbard, 10’0, CCS; 6. Westyn Mendenhall, 9’0, CCS; 8. Sean Heermann, 8’6, CCS.
Long Jump—1. Mollendor, 21’0, CCS; 2. Clevenger, 20’4.5, CCS; 4. Lempke, 18’11, CCS; 6. James McArthur, 18’7.5, CCS; 8. Valencia, 18’7, CCS.
Triple Jump—1. Blake Garner, 41’5.5, Perkins County; 2. Clevenger, 40’5.5, CCS; 4. O’Neil, 39’6, CCS; 5. J. McArthur, 39’1.5, CCS; 6. Adan Mireles, 35’8.75, CCS; 7. Destry Russell, 34’3.75, CCS.