Longhorns win another one at rescheduled Sutherland meet

a day earlier to beat last week’s snowstorm, Coach Carl Zuege  said his Longhorn boys’ team continues to plod through a trying track season.
    Last Friday’s meet at Sutherland was moved to Thursday, and the Longhorns recorded their fourth team championship in as many outings this spring.
    Chase County came out on top in the boys’ division by a 66-point margin, bringing home six golds including all three relays.
    Zuege said Sutherland’s wasn’t the coldest meet they’ve faced. It was generally a nice day, he said, but got windy, and temperatures dropped as events moved into the evening.
    One thing the meet did show, he said, were some performances from fellow SPVA Conference schools they hadn’t seen yet in 2018.
    Perkins County, Hershey and North Platte St. Pat’s finished second, third and fourth behind the Longhorns. Sutherland finished sixth in the field of 10 teams. Kimball and Bridgeport, the other two SPVA schools, were not registered for that meet.
    “That gave us a good snapshot of the conference and what we need to do,” Zuege said.
    Kadin Vrbas recorded an individual gold and silver, winning the 100 and earning second in the 200. Teammate Chase Rowley finished fourth in the 100 and third in the 200.
    In his first run of the 800, Scott Wheeler took the gold with a nice time, Zuege said.
    In the 1600 and 3200 meter races, Will Kuenne took a pair of seconds. Zuege said the senior shaved about 15 seconds off his 3200 meter time to finish behind a strong Hershey runner.    
    Times remained about the same as their previous bests in all three relays, but Zuege was pleased with the 30 points racked up by those teams.
    Evan Fisher had the team’s only first in the field events with the discus gold medal, and also collected fourth in the shot.
    Teammate Eli Hinojosa tallied a second in the shot and third in the discus to add to the team points in the absence of Jack Bauerle, who leads the team in both events.
    “I was encouraged by those guys’ performances last week,” Zuege noted.
    Fisher also was a silver medal winner in the 110 high hurdles, as teammate Dylan Dreiling finished fifth. Dreiling also won the sixth place medal in the 300 meter hurdles.    
    The weather has been challenging this year for track. In his years at Chase County, Zuege said he can recall just one other season when it was like this year.    
    He said when meets get moved up, they affect training and practice schedules, “putting athletes behind the eight ball.”
    Coaches also need to be extra careful and watchful of injuries, especially in the sprints and jumps.
    He said he’s still hopeful the season will have some good weather days with just three weeks until districts.
    Boys’ team scoring at the Sutherland meet was Chase Co. 146, Perkins Co. 80, Hershey 62, No. Platte St. Pat’s 54, Paxton 49, Sutherland 47, Wallace 39, Brady 36, Arthur Co. 12 and Hyannis 2.
    Here are the individual results.

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