Lady Longhorns show resiliency, win state championship

Every coach will tell you it takes luck to win a championship.
To many, it felt like the Chase County girls’ track team was snake bit at the state meet.
But even when it felt like nothing was going their way, the team kept their focus and walked out of Omaha Burke stadium May 22 with the Class C state championship trophy.
It’s the school’s third championship since 2016.
After Classes A and D competed Wednesday and Thursday, it was Friday when the Longhorns began competition.
Competing in their first state meet, Kaylie Lotspeich in the shot put and Jordan Jablonski in the pole vault started off the day. Neither was able to place.
Despite taking a knock to the head in warm ups, junior Lucy Spady ran the opening leg of the 3,200 meter relay. Spady was supposed to run the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs, but sat out after the injury.
Teammates Kora Weiss, Ali McNair and Jordan Jablonski took over after Spady’s leg. Jablonski, coming over directly from the pole vault, took the baton trailing second place Bishop Neumann by five seconds. The junior closed the gap and finished a half step out of second place.
Jerzee Milner and Joee Clevenger took to the track next for the 100 meter hurdles.
Milner advanced to finals with the fourth fastest time in prelims.
Kamrie Dillan sent notice to the rest of the field in her 100 meter dash prelim, setting a PR and school record with a time of 12.40, the fastest in prelims.
Chloe Dillan also set a PR in her 100 prelim but missed out on finals.
After a medal break, Bryn McNair competed in her first event with a PR and school record of 57.18 in the 400, advancing to finals with the fastest qualifying time.
Milner and Clevenger then missed out on finals of the 300 meter hurdles. Milner finished 11th overall.
The day wrapped up with the Dillan sisters in the 200.
K. Dillan once more had the fastest time in prelims with a PR and school record, 25.76.
C. Dillan just missed a PR and didn’t qualify for finals.
The third place finish in the 3,200 meter relay tallied Chase County’s only points of the day.
Hauxwell said the team, trailing Hastings St. Cecilia 6-22 in the team race, was worried Friday evening, but coaches were confident everything would work out the way it should.
Saturday opened with a third-place finish in the high jump by B. McNair. The sophomore had no misses through her first three jumps. After one miss at both 5’2” and 5’4”, McNair was one of three that went out at 5’6”.
B. McNair had a short turn around with the 800 meter run being the first event on the track.
After sitting back through the first lap, B. McNair made her move to the front of the pack with around 350 meters left.
With the crowd roaring as B. McNair headed down the front stretch, she didn’t hear Crofton freshman Jordyn Arens sneaking up on her. Arens timed her lunge right and took first by 0.03 seconds.
Hauxwell credited Arens with running a great tactical race.
After B. McNair’s close finish, the 400 meter relay suffered a similar fate.
Lincoln Lutheran won the first heat of the race with a time of 50.47.
CCS won its heat, but ended up 0.03 seconds behind with a time of 50.50.
Hauxwell said the team was excited to be running and handoffs were tricky in the race.
The Longhorns’ run of bad luck continued in Milner’s 100 meter hurdles finals.
Looking at lane assignments, Hauxwell said coaches were worried about Milner running next to a freshman.
Milner was sitting in the top half of the field when Clarkson-Leigh’s Chloe Hanel went down next to her.
Milner’s hurdle wobbled and the junior broke her stride trying to avoid Hanel. Without a good approach to the second to last hurdle, Milner nearly went down before gathering herself and finishing in seventh place.
K. Dillan’s 100 finals quickly followed the hurdles. She finished second behind Lincoln Lutheran’s Adrianna Rodencal, who had also just won the 100 hurdles.
Despite not finishing how they had hoped, the tide was turning in the team race.
B. McNair’s win in the 400 kept CCS on the right course, while also lowering her PR to 57.16, and K. Dillan sealed the team title with a win in the 200.
While B. McNair, who Hauxwell said was motivated by her second place finish in the 800, led throughout her 400, K. Dillan ran down Clarkson-Leigh’s Emily Loseke for the win.
Hauxwell said K. Dillan’s confidence went through the roof after her 100 prelim and she has always done a great job of going after anyone ahead of her.
With only the 1,600 meter relay left, the drama was far from over.
Looking to go out with a bang, Class C team runner up St. Cecilia took control of the race.
A strong finish by K. Dillan on the opening lap put CCS within 0.2 of the Bluehawks after the first lap.
Disaster nearly struck as Jablonski, the second leg, went to hand off to A. McNair, the third leg, when the pair tangled with Tekamah-Herman runners.
Jablonski fell and rolled out of the way of trailing runners.
A. McNair stumbled but stayed on her feet. While not the perfect leg, A. McNair stayed close enough to set up a classic finish for the Longhorns.
CCS trailed by nearly 2.5 second when B. McNair got the baton. She started cutting into St. Cecilia’s lead in the back stretch and caught up with HSC’s Jenna Esch as they turned down the home stretch.
No lunge was needed in the Longhorns’ 4:04.851 to 4:05.465 win.
The crowd erupted when B. McNair’s split time of 56.565 was announced.
Victory lap
As the meet’s final race medals were handed out, the team huddled on the infield with team members taking turns talking about what the team meant to them.
Rather than their usual jog for their victory lap, the team walked down the track hand in hand, then invited Sophie Spady and Mallie McNair, 2020 graduates who had their senior season canceled, to continue the lap with them.
After talking about the team being a family, the gesture reinforced the theme and showed the culture around the program.
Hauxwell said the team’s identity started to change after the conference meet April 30.
The team’s confidence and love started to show in a different way, Hauxwell said, and this team may have been a little more emotional than those of the past.
“This was a special, close group,” Hauxwell said.
“They’re very supportive and I think they see the bigger picture,” he added.
The coach said he’s grateful for a group of volunteers and assistant coaches who buy into Hauxwell’s philosophy of team and thanked Debbie Dahlkoetter-Richardson, Dan Lenners, Sam McNair, Matt Jablonski, Travis Luhrs, Kale Gockley, Josh Fries, Al Zuege and Paige Milner for their help throughout the season.
Results:
Top 10 team results—1. Chase County, 68; 2. Hastings St. Cecilia, 49; 3. Battle Creek, 41; 4. Lincoln Lutheran, 40; 5. Crofton, 38.5; 6. Superior, 31; 7. Syracuse, 30; 8. David City, 26; 9. Wisner-Pilger, 25; 10. Norfolk Catholic, 24.
100 Meters—1. Adrianna Rodencal, 12.36PR, Lincoln Lutheran; 2. Kamrie Dillan, 12.45, CCS; Chloe Dillan, 13.00PR, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Kamrie Dillan, 25.76PR, CCS; Chloe Dillan, 27.02    CCS.
400 Meters—1. Bryn McNair, 57.16PR, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Jordyn Arens, 2:18.21PR, Crofton; 2. Bryn McNair, 2:18.24PR, CCS.
100m Hurdles - 33”—1. Adrianna Rodencal, 15.03, Lincoln Lutheran; 7. Jerzee Milner, 16.55, CCS; 18. Joee Clevenger, 16.97, CCS.
300m Hurdles - 30”—1. Kayla Svoboda, 46.25, Wisner-Pilger; Milner, 48.26, CCS; Clevenger, 53.60, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. LIncoln Lutheran, 50.47; 2. CCS (Milner, K. Dillan, C. Dillan, Jablonski), 50.50.
4x400 Relay—1. CCS (K. Dillan, Jablonski, Ali McNair, B. McNair), 4:04.86.
4x800 Relay—1. Hastings St. Cecilia (Jenna Esch, Jill Parr, Erin Sheehy, Alayna Vargas), 9:45.06; 3. CCS (Lucy Spady, Kora Weiss, A. McNair, Jablonski), 10:06.40.
Shot Put - 4kg—1. Jessica Stieb, 44-07.50PR, Arcadia-Loup City; Kaylie Lotspeich, 32-07.00, CCS.
High Jump—1. Jesse Moss, 5-06, Syracuse; 3. B. McNair, 5-04, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Mya Zohner, 11-00.00PR, Battle Creek; Jablonski, 9-06, CCS.