Hauxwell headed to state XC

Chase County sophomore Haven Hauxwell will represent the Longhorns at Friday’s State Cross Country Meet.
H. Hauxwell finished fourth at last week’s C-5 District meet in Ogallala last Thursday.
CCS Head Coach Carl Zuege said coaches thought H. Hauxwell was a top five guy, but this district was absolutely loaded on the boys side.
“For him to finish fourth, and he was closing in quickly on the second and third place runners at the end, was a really good result, and should give him a ton of confidence heading to the state meet.
Defending state champion and this year’s district champion, Gothenburg, took the top two places, followed by a Holdrege runner.
H. Hauxwell was just over five seconds out of third place.
Next up for the Longhorns was Brayan Reyes in 20th. Andrew Wiest, Spencer Kelley, Trevin Moreno and Lleyton McDaniel rounded out the CCS runners.
Zuege said he thought everyone was happy with the collective effort.
Moreno, who qualified for state last year, battled injures throughout the season.
“Trevin was not close to 100% on his injured foot, but he gave it a great effort. Also, Navy Smith was ill and did not run, so missing those two guys certainly put us in a tough spot as far as team scoring. I thought that the guys who did run put out a great effort and most of them ran really good times,” Zuege said.
As for H. Hauxwell’s preparations for state, Zuege said coaches will cut his mileage way back and emphasize recovery, fresh legs, and mental preparation.
“He was averaging about 50 miles per week up until district week, so he will back that way down in order to be fresh and well rested,” Zuege added.
Gothenburg continued its quest for a repeat state championship with five runners among the 15 automatic qualifiers.
Holdrege and Alliance also claimed team berths to state.
Alliance beat out SPVA’s Hershey by one point, 73-74.
“After watching the race, I was hopeful that Coach Bottom’s team at Hershey had finished third and qualified, but they were just barely edged out by Alliance,” Zuege said.
Outside of Gothenburg dominating, it was a very competitive race, he continued.
“I think that we knew with our injuries and sickness that it was going to be a tough path for us to qualify as a team, but our guys gave a great effort and I think we were OK with the results because we had done all that we could,” Zuege said..
Esmeralda Lopez led the Longhorns’ girls team but missed out on qualifying for state.
“I thought Esmeralda ran a really good race. She is a fast starter, but I thought that at districts she stayed strong and finished a lot better—I was very happy with her race,” Zuege said.
Lopez started her cross country career in Wallace and came to CCS this year from St. Francis, Kansas.
While at Wallace, Lopez ran for coach Liz Strand Hock.
Zuege said he put team members on the job of meeting her and asking if she would like to join the team.
“Their pitch must have been a good one, because Esmeralda showed up the next morning ready to practice. As I said before, we were certainly fortunate to have her.” he said.
Paige Nickless continued her strong finish to the season with Chase County’s second best time and a personal season best. Zuege said Nickless is such a positive kid, so it is good to see her finish the season with her best performances.
Tessa Smith continued to perform despite being not feeling her best. Although she felt better than she did at the SPVA meet, Zuege said she was certainly was not over the illness that hit her right before the SPVA meet.
“I admire the fact that she fought through it and finished those last two races for her team,” he added.
Faith Hauxwell was just short of a personal best at the district meet.
“Faith did have a nice race to finish. Faith joined us her junior year after playing volleyball her first two years of high school. I am so glad that Faith joined our team—she is just a positive influence on everyone and a great kid. Those types of kids simply make teams better because of their leadership and attitude, and that is certainly true about Faith,” Zuege said.
The third senior out for cross country this season was Kevin Dannatt, who was running for the first time since junior high.
“Kevin put in a great summer and really just fit right in from day one. I know I sound like a broken record, but Kevin is such a positive kid out there, and that becomes contagious when other kids see it. I am very thankful that Kevin joined us this season, and he continued to improve all season long,” Zuege said.
State Cross Country Friday
Class B girls will lead off state XC Friday at noon CT at the Kearney Country Club.
Following will be Class A girls, Class B boys and Class A boys. Awards for those races will be presented at 2 p.m. CT.
Class D girls will start off the second session at 2:30 p.m. CT. Following them will be Class C girls, Class D boys and Class C boys.
Class C boys, including H. Hauxwell, is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start.
Awards will be at 4:30 p.m. CT.
C-5 District reaults
Girls team results—1. Sidney, 44; 2. McCook, 45; 3. Broken Bow, 52; 4. Chadron, 58; 5. Ogallala, 65; 6. Gothenburg, 72; 7. Holdrege, 131; 8. Cozad, 139; 9. Chase County, 147.
Girls individual results­—1. Lindee Henning, 18:47.02, Ogallala; 2. Talissa Tanquary, 19:53.14, Sidney; 3. Emma Cappel, 20:13.28, McCook; 4. Ashlyn Schauda, 20:40.08, Broken Bow; 5. Kylee Kampfe, 20:41.23, Sidney; 6. Adeline Pinkston, 21:02.83, Gothenburg; 7. Isabella (Izzy) Renner, 21:17.09, McCook; 8. Brecken Gale, 21:21.60, McCook; 9. Kiarra Jonas, 21:21.88, Gothenburg; 10. Lauren Henning, 21:44.15, Ogallala; 11. Lillie Uhing, 21:50.85, Chadron; 12. Jentsyn Fuller, 21:59.93, Chadron; 13. Kaitlyn Jewett, 22:26.39, Holdrege; 14. Grace Pyle, 22:27.30, Chadron; 15. Shirley Cotant, 22:31.91, Mitchell; Esmeralda Lopez, 25:11.97, Chase County; Paige Nickless, 25:13.50, Chase County; Tessa Smith, 26:30.18, Chase County; Faith Hauxwell, 27:29.50, Chase County

Boys team results—1. Gothenburg, 16; 2. Holdrege, 41; 3. Alliance, 73; 4. Hershey, 74; 5. Broken Bow, 90; 6. Chase County, 93; 7. McCook, 8. Cozad, 138; 9. Sidney, 154; 10. Chadron, 191; 11. Ogallala, 197; 12. Mitchell, 239.
Boys individual results—1. Tyler Hetz, 16:22.32, Gothenburg; 2. Parker Graves, 16:56.33, Gothenburg; 3. Nikolas Schrock, 16:57.82, Holdrege; 4. Haven Hauxwell, 17:03.16, Chase County; 5. Trevor Zurn, 17:03.34, Alliance; 6. Ethan Olsen, 17:08.01, Gothenburg; 7. Yahriel Gaeta, 17:19.11, Gothenburg; 8. Christophe Taylor, 17:20.20, Holdrege; 9. Sawyer Laflan, 17:21.71, Ogallala; 10. Jordan Arensdorf, 17:22.86, Hershey; 11. Josiah Wilkinson, 17:22.98, McCook; 12. Nathan Sager, 17:23.78, Gothenburg; 13. Jackson Hansen, 17:25.12, Broken Bow; 14. Roman Urbom, 17:25.12, Holdrege; 15. Chase Moorhead, 17:25.99, Hershey; Brayan Reyes, 18:04.79, Chase County; Andrew Wiest, 18:52.16, Chase County; Spencer Kelley, 19:04.82, Chase County; Trevin Moreno, 19:25.60, Chase County; Lleyton McDaniel, 21:24.79, Chase County.