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Cedar Catholic and Hartington-Newcastle boys win track titles
HNS qualifies 16 events for State
HUMPHREY — The Hartington-Newcastle track teams qualified a “bus-load”of athletes for the State Track Meet in Omaha.
Well, “bus-load” is perhaps an understatement as Lady Wildcat coach, Mandy Hochstein indicated the teams will travel in vans, but the group is large —very large.
The Wildcats won the team title May 14 at the D-3 District Meet, outlasting Howells-Dodge 112-104 for the gold plaque after winning four events and filling in a lot of thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths to accumulate the final score.
“I was very pleased with the overall effort displayed by our boys team on the day,” said Wildcat coach, Dylan Behnk. “We had a couple of kids step up in a big way to score points where they were not projected to do so. That extra effort is what it took to be district champions. Making it to the state meet is a great accomplishment, however, all of those third through sixth place finishers also deserve recognition for helping propel the team to the status of champions.”
Cole Rosener had a great meet and his efforts helped lead the Wildcat charge.
Rosener will have a busy state meet after qualifying in four events — three individual events and one relay.
He won the 400 in 52.69 seconds and the long jump with a best of 22-feet-0.5-inches and placed second in the 200 with a time of 22.94.
He also anchored the HNS 4x100-meter relay and along with Will Feilmeier, Mason Krause and Maximus McCray, broke the tape in 45.19 seconds to earn the gold.
Feilmeier punched his own ticket with a gold medal performance in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.14 and was third right behind Rosener in the 200 in 23.18. Maximus McCray was fifth to finish the event with 16 team points.
McCray led a 2-3-6 finish in the triple jump taking runner-up, Krause was third and Landon Clark placed sixth.
Krause’s effort in the event earned him a chance in Omaha as an automatic qualifier.
Cole and Jason Heimes tied for third in the pole vault, Jason was fourth in the 400, Dane Gotch was fourth in the 800, Issac Santiago was fourth in the 1,600 and Krause added a fourth in the long jump.
Aidan Anderson was sixth behind Santiago in the 1,600 and placed fifth in the 3,200.
Gabriel Reyes was sixth in the 800 and Brayden Lammers was fifth in the high jump.
The Lady Wildcats ended up third in the team scoring with 102 points. Wausa won the title with 115.33 points and Archangels Catholic was second with 107.33.
“The girls had great team efforts all day,” said Hochstein. “They have really put in the work all season and it really paid off at the district.”
Vayda Lippert had a great day. The talented Lady Wildcat freshman earned three spots in the state meet.
She won the 800 in 2:30.76 was second in the 400 in 1:02.36 and was an automatic qualifiers in the high jump with a best of 4-11.
Carmen Buschkamp doubled up in the distance races, winning the 1,600 in 6:13.09 and the 3,200 in 13:34 .79.
“Carmen has been a dedicated runner her entire career,” Hochstein said. “She will be greatly missed next year along with our other seniors.”
Ella Eickhoff led a 1-2-5 finish for the Lady ‘Cats in the pole vault. Teammate Hazel Hochstein will join Eickhoff in Omaha and Jaden Opfer was fifth.
Eickhoff also placed third in the 100 hurdles.
