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HARTINGTON — By the end of Thursday’s Class C-4 District Meet, Cedar Catholic athletes seemed to be everywhere — on the awards stand, atop the leaderboard and lining up plans for Omaha.
After a dominant performance at the Class C-4 District Track and Field Meet May 14 at the Hartington Community Athletic Complex, the Trojans and Lady Trojans combined to qualify 20 athletes for this week’s Nebraska State Track and Field Championships at Burke Stadium.
The Trojan boys rolled to the district team championship with 152 points, nearly 70 ahead of runner-up Wakefield’s 83. Hartington-Newcastle finished third with 72. Meanwhile, the Lady Trojans tied Ponca for third place in the girls standings with 86 points.
“We’re really coming together at the right time,” Cedar Catholic coach Blair Kalin said. “Our depth really showed up in the district meet. It seems like we are peaking at just the right time.”
Cedar Catholic qualified 13 boys and seven girls for Omaha with athletes spread across relays, sprinting events, distance races, hurdles, jumps and throws.
The Trojans swept all three boys relay events at districts. The 4X100 relay team of Booker Hochstein, Cooper Hochstein, Micah Cattau and Mason Baller raced to a district title in 43.54 seconds. Cedar Catholic also captured the 4X400 relay behind Mason Baller, Hunter Kuchta, Kighter Wortmann and Cooper Hochstein in 3:27.22. The Trojans completed the relay sweep in the 4X800 with Kuchta, Mason Baller, Cooper Hochstein and Wortmann posting a winning time of 8:22.77.
Cooper Hochstein also qualified individually in the 400-meter dash with a runner-up finish in 50.91 seconds. Wortmann and Kuchta went 1-2 in the 800-meter run, both automatically advancing to state.
In the field events, Jared Rutar turned in a huge day by winning both the shot put and discus. Teammate Graham Potts qualified in the shot put with a second-place finish while Sam Wiebelhaus punched his ticket to Omaha in the discus after placing second with a personal-record throw of 153-2.
The Trojans also showed off their depth in the jumps. Brady Hochstein qualified in the long jump after placing second with a leap of 20-11 3/4 while Easton Hochstein qualified in the triple jump. Freshman Keaton Keiser secured a state berth in the pole vault by finishing second at 11-8. Nolan Heimes earned his way to Omaha in the 110-meter hurdles and added a fourth-place finish in the 300 hurdles.
On the girls side, Anisten Wortmann again proved to be one of the state’s elite athletes.
Wortmann qualified in four individual events, winning district titles in the 100-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles while also qualifying in the 400-meter dash. Her state qualifying marks currently rank among the top times in Class C.
Kinleigh Kramer qualified for Omaha by winning the pole vault at 8-2 while teammate Danielle Eickhoff placed third in the same event. Adelyn Reifenrath earned a state berth in the long jump after placing second with a leap of 16-4.
The Lady Trojan 4X100 relay team of Evie Freeman, Brynn Bernecker, Shayla Heine and Landry Heimes also claimed a district championship with a winning time of 51.40 seconds.
“You never know what is going to happen down there,” Kalin said. “I know our kids will go down there and compete hard. We’ve put in the work to get down there, now we need to just go down there and enjoy it.”
2026 C-4 DISTRICT TRACK MEET
Boys Team Results 1. Cedar Catholic 152; 2. Wakefield 83; 3. Hartington-Newcastle 72; 4. Ponca 62; 5. Pender 52; 6. LCC 33; 7. Homer 31; 8. Winnebago 26; 9. Tri County NE 16.
Wildcats play final tune up before Districts
RANDOLPH - The Hartington- Newcastle golf team made the short trip down to Randolph for the Randolph Invitational on May 11 as the Wildcats prepared for their upcoming district meet.
The ‘Cats posted a team score of 352 in the meet to secure ninth-place. Creighton won the tournament after firing a 319 as a team, Wausa was second with a 332 and Pierce was one shot back of the Vikings at 333.
“We actually shot one of our lowest team scores of the season at Randolph,” said Hartington-Newcastle co-coach Mike Johnson. “Austin Sudbeck, Lincoln Grutsch and Grady Lammers all shot their lowest 18hole score of their careers. Austin just missed medalling. Overall Coach (Ken) Kneifl and myself were very encouraged.”
Kooper Gubbels of Osmond took medalist honors after firing a 75.
Sudbeck carded an 85 to lead the Wildcats, just two shots out of the medals as the coach said.
Kayne Gratzfeld was next for HNS with an 86, Carter Kelly shot an 88 and Lammers and Grutsch shot 93 and 94 respectively.
HNS was set to play in the C-3 District Tournament Tuesday.
