Coach: some nice surprises from girls at Ogallala

    It was a terrible day for track, but Lady Longhorn Coach Troy Hauxwell said there were some great performances from his team at last week’s second meet of 2018.
    With snow forecast for last Thursday’s Ogallala Invitational, it was decided to move the meet up a day to March 28 and hold only finals in the running and field events.
    It was the right decision, but athletes still dealt with rainy, cold conditions.
    That made some of the Chase County times and marks  even more impressive, Hauxwell said, as his team went on to win the first place team trophy.
    Junior Allison Owings was one example. Despite cold and wet surfaces, she again claimed both gold medals in the shot and discus, repeating that feat from the opener at Perkins County.
    The only Lady Longhorn to capture two firsts, she was named the Ed Moore Outstanding Female Athlete for the meet on a vote by all head coaches that day. Gothenburg’s Trenton Harbor took the honor for the boys.
    “Allison did a great job to win both in those conditions,” Hauxwell said.
    Other Lady Longhorn firsts included Mallie McNair in the 400, Peyton Fiedler in the 100 meter high hurdles and Ashley Bubak in the triple jump.
    Fiedler was another athlete Hauxwell highlighted.
    She was one of very few in four events who medaled in all four, and that was in competition for the first time this season. She missed the opener in Grant due to illness.
    She also placed third in the 300 meter hurdles, fifth in the pole vault and ran the first leg on the second place 400 meter relay team.
    Bubak’s gold medal in the triple jump with a 31’3” mark was also a nice effort, Hauxwell added. She beat a couple of girls who placed ahead of her the week before.
    McNair maintained her dominance in the 400 with another first place finish last week. While her time wasn’t below 60 seconds like last week, it was a good time for the conditions, he said.
    Hauxwell was also glad to see Ragan Nickless take fourth and Kora Weiss, sixth, in the 400.
    Due to closeness of the events with the meet’s shortened schedule, McNair was held out of the 800.
    Hauxwell said McNair would have given Mitchell’s Jori Peters a run for her money in the 800, considering McNair’s split in the 3200 meter relay was 2:20, five seconds faster than Peters’ winning 800 time.
    None of Chase County’s relays took first last week, which hadn’t happened much at all the past year.

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