Longhorn cross country runners get taste of district, state courses

In a span of four days, Chase County’s runners discovered what they’ll face at the upcoming district and state cross country meets.
Not only were the Ogallala and UNK courses vastly different, but the runners also faced very different weather conditions. Ogallala’s Invitational last Thursday was cool and windy, while warmer temperatures greeted runners in Kearney Monday.
The Longhorns were out of the medals at both meets, but Coach Carl Zuege found some positives on both days.
The boys were seventh and the girls, eighth, at Ogallala, where the District C5 meet will be held Oct. 13.
He said the girls ran a competitive race.
“We were led by McKenzie Vogt once again, and Tessa Smith, Paige Nickless and Faith Hauxwell came in all together to round out our scoring. Maddie Hanes, our 5th runner, also looked much stronger this week,” he said.
On the boys’ side for Chase County, Trevin Moreno broke the 18-minute mark, running his best race of the season, Zuege said.
“Haven Hauxwell began to show some improvement and is beginning to look much healthier, which is huge for our team going forward. Navy Smith and Andrew Wiest once again rounded out our scoring,” he said.
All 12 of the C5 district teams ran at Ogallala last week.
The Longhorns got a taste of what state competition will be like Monday at the UNK meet, where separate races were held for each class.
Three hundred boys and 176 girls ran in Class C and faced the hilly and challenging Kearney course.
“For the boys, it was good to get a look at the course,” Zuege said, “and give us a baseline for the next time we see this course—hopefully this year’s state meet.”
On the girls’ side, Zuege said three of their four runners saw the course for the first time, and how challenging it can be.
Trevin Moreno was first across for the boys at Kearney, while Faith Hauxwell led the Chase County girls.
Up next
The Longhorns have a little break with no meets on the schedule until Oct. 6 when they will be in Grant for the Perkins Co./SPVA meet. It has a 4 p.m. start time.
All seven SPVA schools will be at the meet—Bridgeport, Kimball, PCS, CCS, Sutherland, Hershey and North Platte St. Pat’s.
Ogallala results:
Boys’ team results—1. Gothenburg, 14; 2. Gering, 40; 3. St Patrick, 43; 4. Broken Bow, 83; 5. Sandhills Valley, 129; 6. McCook, 149; 7. Chase County, 150; 8. Cozad, 161; 9. Ogallala, 167; 10. Hershey, 183; 11. Sidney, 190; 12. Chadron, 198; 13. Garden County, 206; 14. Alliance, 217; 15. Paxton, 234; 16. Kimball, 291.
Boys’ individual results—1. Mason McGreer, 16:27.44, Perkins County; 2. Jarrett Miles, 16:27.75, St Patrick; 3. Parker Graves, 16:39.31, Gothenburg; 4. Ethan Olsen, 16:59.57, Gothenburg; 5. Nathan Sager, 17:04.94, Gothenburg; 6. Yahriel Gaeta, 17:06.12, Gothenburg; 7. Eli Marez, 17:19.22, Gering; 8. Nathan Seiler, 17:19.70, Gering; 9. Josiah Wilkinson, 17:22.65, McCook; 10. Dax Connick, 17:23.90, St Patrick; 11. Porter Connick, 17:27.67, St Patrick; 12. Axton Stone, 17:28.11, Gering; 13. Noah Osmond, 17:32.34, Broken Bow; 14. Brock Oeltjen, 17:33.33, Broken Bow; 15. Benjamin Cassatt-Reina, 17:37.96, Alliance; 20. Trevin Moreno, 17:46.70, CCS; 30. Haven Hauxwell, 18:17.84, CCS; 50. Navy Smith, 19:07.11, CCS; 54. Andrew Wiest, 19:10.67, CCS; 60. Brayan Reyes, 19:37.76, CCS; 65. Salvador Venegas, 19:47.88, CCS.
JV boys’ team results—1. Broken Bow, 12; 2. Ogallala, 44; 3. Sidney, 51; 4. Chase County, 53; 5. Kimball, 88.
JV boys’ individual results—1. Jackson Hansen, 11. Peyton Dubas, 20:25.93, CCS; 15. Colin O’Neil, 20:43.90, CCS; 16. Kobe Norman, 20:44.51, CCS; .37. Cole Pankonin, 24:21.70, CCS.
Girls’ team results—1. McCook, 39; 2. Chadron, 47; 3. Gering, 49; 4. Ogallala, 78; 5. Sidney, 89; 6. Cozad, 89; 7. Broken Bow, 119; 8. St Patrick, 152; 9. Sutherland Public, 157; 10. Chase County, 183; 11. Sandhills Valley, 195; 12. Maxwell, 208.
Girls’ individual results—1. Madison Seiler, 18:27.57, Gering; 2. Lindee Henning, 18:46.22, Ogallala; 3. Talissa Tanquary, 19:52.19, Sidney; 4. Samantha (Sammy) Rodewald, 19:52.47, McCook; 5. Braelyn Gifford, 19:52.85, St Patrick; 6. Mallory Applegate, 20:30.62, Cozad; 7. Micaiah Fuller, 20:39.18, Chadron; 8. Jadyn Scott, 20:48.20, Gering; 9. Karyn Burkholder, 20:49.64, Cozad; 10. Sienna Dutton, 21:02.44, McCook; 11. Emma Cappel, 21:08.68, McCook; 12. Makinley Fuller, 21:23.05, Chadron; 13. Jentsyn Fuller, 21:23.36, Chadron; 14. Brecken Gale, 21:45.84, McCook; 15. Emma Witte, 21:46.60, Chadron; 38. McKenzie Vogt, 23:36.45, CCS; 62. Tessa Smith, 25:10.11, CCS; 63. Paige Nickless, 25:10.45, CCS; 64. Faith Hauxwell, 25:13.11, CCS; 69. Madelynn Hanes, 26:14.35, CCS.
JH boys’ team results—1. Gothenburg, 11; 2. McCook, 52; 3. Sidney, 79; 4. Mitchell, 80; 5. Cozad, 95; 6. Sutherland, 106; 7. Chase County, 110; 8. Hershey, 129; 9. Alliance, 146; 10. Broken Bow, 146; 11. Kimball, 184; 12. Sandhills Valley, 207.
JH boys’ individual results—1. Tyler Hetz, 10:41.03, Gothenburg; 18. Brandon Chavira, 12:17.15, CCS; 22. Connor Einspahr, 12:29.14, CCS; 36. James Bomba, 13:20.76, CCS; 62. Luke Kuenning, 14:33.05, CCS; 63. Alex Nelson, 14:37.21, CCS; 86. Jaxsen Villarreal, 17:54.32, CCS
UNK Invite results:
Boys’ team results—1. Gothenburg, 45; 2. Fort Calhoun, 66; 3. Arlington, 81; 4. Lincoln Christian, 82; 5. Milford, 112; 22. Chase County, 397.
Boys’ individual results—1. NOECKER, Carson,  Hartington-Newcastle, 14:51.00; MORENO, Trevin, CCS, 19:19.52; HAUXWELL, Haven, CCS, 19:48.34; SMITH, Navy, CCS, 19:51.68; REYES, Brayan, CCS, 20:11.08; WIEST, Andrew, CCS, 20:19.96; VENEGAS, Salvador, CCS, 22:03.64; O’NEIL, Colin, CCS, 22:48.06; DUBAS, Peyton, CCS, 23:25.13; NORMAN, Kobe, CCS, 23:41.75; PANKONIN, Cole, CCS, 25:29.23.
Girls’ team results—1. Lincoln Christian, 67; 2. Auburn, 80; 3. Douglas County West, 97; 4. McCook, 100; 5. Wayne, 104; 25. Chase County, 466.
Girls’ individual results—1. GREEN, Keelianne, Arlington, 19:29.60; HAUXWELL, Faith, CCS, 26:17.72; SMITH, Tessa, CCS, 26:25.26; VOGT, McKenzie, CCS, 27:05.18; NICKLESS, Paige, CCS, 28:55.86.