CCS takes big home invite win

    Five schools toughed out windy conditions at the Chase County Invite April 21.
    Longhorns Boys’ Head Coach Carl Zuege said he doesn’t ever remember sustained wind like this and the weather has made it very difficult to prepare for most events, but especially the technical events where athletes must have their approaches and steps exactly right, like the jumps and hurdles.
    “We are out training in it pretty much every day, but when the wind is never the same speed or direction, getting a consistent mark is difficult,” Zuege said.
    All teams are in the same boat, he added.
    “Our job is to navigate the conditions and have our athletes ready for any weather when it comes time to compete,” he said.
    The CCS boys racked up 225 points to handily beat second-place Ogallala by 57 points.
    Depth made the difference in the big win, Zuege believes.
    “We have around 50 athletes competing for us, which gives us a big numbers advantage over most of our area schools,” he said.
    CCS placed at least three athletes in each running event. In the field events, the Longhorns only had one event, long jump, that they didn’t have at least two medalists.
    Despite the windy conditions, Zuege said he thought the Longhorns performed pretty well as a team.
    “We were pleased to win the meet and set some good marks,” Zuege said.
    Mason Wallin picked up Chase County’s only individual win at the invite in pole vault, which he won by 18 inches.
    The Longhorns also won the 1,600-meter relay with Luis Co, Stephen Murray, Easton Fries and Ryan Bernhardt, and the 400-meter throwers relay—Tyler O’Neil, Ben Skeels, Jesus Medina and Zane Mays.
    The meet has gotten smaller in recent years, Zuege said, in part because Colorado schools like Holyoke, Haxtun and Wray are choosing to focus on in-season qualifying that can only be found in their own state.
    Some teams chose to attend postponed meets that were rescheduled for April 21, as well, Zuege said.
    “I don’t necessarily think it was a bad thing. We certainly want to see the best possible competition each week, but considering the conditions, our meet still had some quality performances and it moved along quickly,” he said.
    Saturday the team boarded buses bright and early to head to the Hershey Invite.
    “While everyone kind of understood that the wind was going to be relentless, we all need to get meets in and we wanted to see if we could maybe catch a break with the weather and get an opportunity for our teams to get out there,” Zuege said.
    Once there, coaches reevaluated and the meet was called after one round of early events.
    “Shortly into the first session of field events it became apparent that it was not in the best interest of the athletes to be in those conditions, so the correct decision was made to postpone the meet,” Zuege said.
    While he appreciated Hershey’s attempt to hold the event, the weather won out on Saturday, he added, and keeping athletes safe was the priority.
    “No matter how much we prepare for adverse conditions, it is just really hard for our athletes to warm up properly and avoid injury in those cold and windy conditions. With SPVA and districts so near, it was best not to risk it.”
Up next
    CCS will head to Grant for the SPVA meet Friday.
    Zuege said, as always, everyone is very excited for the SPVA meet.
    “As I mention every year, the SPVA meet is our chance to represent not just our current team, but all of the athletes and coaches of the past in our program,” Zuege said.
    The Longhorns will talk this week about some of the school’s history in this meet, its current winning streak of seven SPVA championships and why winning conference track is so important to the team, he said.
    It will be a very competitive meet.
    “There is not much separating us and St. Pat’s from a scoring standpoint, so if we are successful in defending our streak, it will depend on our depth and the points from those 4th, 5th and 6th place finishes. We need to win the relays and to perform at our highest level,” Zuege said.
    The team has a few nagging injuries, but Zuege is hopeful to have all hands on deck by Friday.
    The meet is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
CCS Invite results
Boys’ team scores—1. Chase County, 225; 2. Ogallala, 168; 3. Perkins County, 113; 4. Hershey, 88; 5. Dundy County Stratton, 68.
Individual results
100 Meters—1. Jackson Kerchal, 11.26, Dundy County Stratton; 3. Dawson Mollendor, 11.57, CCS; 6. James McArthur, 11.88, CCS; 7. Jonathan Sosa, 11.98, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Dalton Clark, 23.88, Hershey; 3. Sosa, 24.49, CCS; 4. Mollendor, 24.53, CCS; 8. Sergio Quintana, 25.30, CCS;
400 Meters—1. Caiden Castillo, 54.12, Ogallala; 2. Ryan Bernhardt, 55.21, CCS; 5. Zach Herbert, 56.87, CCS; 6. Luis Co, 57.44, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Colton Pouk, 2:13.25, PCS; 3. Herbert, 2:17.33, CCS; 5. Mason Tyerman, 2:21.73, CCS; 8. Tristan Jablonski, 2:29.44, CCS.
1600 Meters—1. Mason McGreer, 5:09.29, PCS; 2. Colin O’Neil, 5:27.81, CCS; 3. Trevin Moreno, 5:27.94, CCS; 4. Brayan Reyes, 5:38.76, CCS.
3200 Meters—1. McGreer, 11:03.81, PCS; 2. Moreno, 12:05.39, CCS; 4. Navy Smith, 12:59.11, CCS; 6. Andrew Wiest, 13:07.20, CCS; 8. Peyton Dubas, 13:41.33, CCS;
110m Hurdles—1. Cameron Zink, 15.46, Ogallala; 2. Easton Fries, 15.75, CCS; 4. Jensen Olsen, 16.24, CCS; 5. Kade Anderson, 16.53, CCS; 8. Cameron Johnson, 18.15, CCS.
300m Hurdles—1. Zink, 41.95, Ogallala; 2. Fries, 42.09, CCS; 4. Anderson, 45.15, CCS; 8. Carson Terryberry, 50.21, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. Ogallala, 46.28; 2. CCS (Sosa, Bernhardt, McArthur, Mollendor), 46.38, CCS; 5. CCS (George Colton, Jason Nelson, Adan Perez, Isaac Stretesky, 52.55.
4x100 Throwers Relay—1. CCS (Tyler O’Neil, Ben Skeels, Jesus Medina, Zane Mays), 53.67; 2. CCS (Malachi Christensen, Jaret Peterson, Conner Tyerman, Cooper Dillan), 53.75.
4x400 Relay—1. CCS (Co, Stephen Murray, Fries, Bernhardt), 3:39.70.
4x800 Relay—1. PCS, 9:23.94; 2. CCS (Quintana, O’Neil, Murray, Tyerman), 9:37.26.
Shot Put—1. Kyren Graves, 48’ 11.5, Ogallala; 2. Peterson, 43’ 7.75, CCS; 8. Dillan, 40’ 2.75, CCS.
Discus—1. Alek DaMoude, 142’ 1, Hershey; 2. Peterson, 129’ 3, CCS; 4. Dillan, 117’ 0, CCS; 6. Tyerman, 112’ 0, CCS.
High Jump—1. Kerchal, 6’ 2, Dundy County Stratton; 5. Fries, 5’ 6, CCS; 6. Tyerman, 5’ 4, CCS; 7. Johnson, 5’ 0, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Mason Wallin, 11’ 6, CCS; 5. Christensen, 9’ 0, CCS.
Long Jump—1. Casey Hanson, 20’ 2.5, PCS; 2. Bernhardt, 20’ 0.5, CCS.
Triple Jump—1. Blake Garner, 42’ 3, PCS; 2. McArthur, 38’ 6.5, CCS; 4. Kole Clevenger, 38’ 2.5, CCS; 6. Tristan Jablonski, 37’ 8, CCS; 8. Brayan Reyes, 36’ 7, CCS.