Longhorn boys make the best of bad conditions

    In the middle of a day that had two weather delays, which led to the entire meet packing up and moving to a new facility, few could have predicted the Chase County boys’ track team would end up with one of the largest group of Class C state qualifiers out of any of the districts from across the state.
    The Longhorns qualified 15 athletes for the state track meet across 20 events.
    Head Coach Carl Zuege said that’s the biggest group he can remember in his time with CCS.
    That’s not to say Chase County didn’t have some disappointments.
    Senior pole vaulter Carter Leibbrandt, a state qualifier as a sophomore, missed last year with a knee injury, but returned this season with high expectations.
    Zuege said Leibbrandt had a great season, but unfortunately suffered a hamstring injury at the conference meet.
    “He did everything possible to try to get back for this meet, but was not able to compete. We know that Carter would have been a qualifier and most likely a state medalist,” Zuege said, adding he feels really badly for Leibbrandt that he wasn’t able to get that opportunity.
    “As anyone who knows him would expect, he handled it with toughness and maturity,” Zuege continued.
    The schedule for field events was changed early in the district meet, moving the second session up to immediately follow the first session.
    The 100-meter hurdle, 110-meter hurdle and 100-meter dash prelims were completed before a weather delay put the meet on pause.
    Athletes warmed up once more and completed the 400-meter dash and girls’ 3,200-meter relay before another rain delay.
    Earning berths to state that morning were Mason Wallin in the pole vault, Jaret Peterson in the discus and shot put, Cooper Dillan as an additional qualifier in the discus, Kade Anderson in the triple jump, Kole Clevenger and Tucker Mollendor in the long jump, as well as Jonathan Sosa as an additional qualifier in only his second open 400 race.
    The 3,200-meter relay team, Tristan Jablonski, Luis Co, Stephen Murray and Zach Herbert, “took care of business,” Zuege said, in winning the race.
    Easton Fries broke Mathew May’s 2006 school record of 49.8 in winning the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.78.
    Zuege was also excited for Clevenger and T. Mollendor, with both setting personal bests to win first and second, respectively, in the long jump.
    In the prelim heats before the move, Thomas Reeves and Dawson Mollendor ran personal records to reach the finals of the 100, and Fries, Anderson and Jensen Olsen moved on to the finals of the 110-meter hurdles.
    Then came the rain, the uncertainty and the move.
    With the writing on the wall, coaches and organizers made the decision to move the meet from Grant to Ogallala where lights along the track would allow for a wet, late night finish.
    In individual events, the top two finishers automatically qualified for state, then the next six best overall performance were additional qualifiers.
    With that in mind, coaches knew the chances of sneaking in any additional qualifiers was going to be tough.
    Herbert was fourth in the 800 and Haven Hauxwell was third in both the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs.
    The Longhorns still had some fantastic performances in Ogallala.
    Reeves had a PR in winning the 200-meter dash. Reeves and D. Mollendor didn’t come close to the earlier times in the 100, but did go 1-2 to qualify for state. D. Mollendor edged out Perkins County’s Blake Garner by 0.02 for second place.
    Fries and Anderson, who ran a PR, went 1-2 in the 110-meter hurdle finals.  Jensen Olsen earned an additional qualifying spot in the 110s as did Anderson in the 300s to give him three events at state.
    Chase County’s goal throughout the season was to have Fries, Anderson and Olsen repeat as state qualifiers in the 110-meter hurdles.
    Fries broke his second school record of the day in the 300 hurdles. His time of 39.52 broke Nathan Wenzlick’s 2003 record electronically adjusted time of 39.54.
    CCS continued its relay sweep with wins in the 400-meter relay, Sosa, T. Mollendor, Reeves and D. Mollendor, and 1,600-meter relay, Sosa, Jablonski, Murray and Fries.
    “Of course there were a few places where we would have loved to qualify a couple more guys, but by and large we had a tremendous day and we were very pleased with the results,” Zuege said.
    After the move to Ogallala, the Longhorns still set five personal bests despite the rain.
    “While I am still amazed by what some of these guys are accomplishing, I have also come to expect these types of performances from them. They have consistently performed at a very high level through what has been a fairly rough season weather-wise,” Zuege said.
    “The amount of great performances we had is just a credit to how hard our kids have worked, and how well they compete,” he added.
Up next
    While excited about the possibilities in Omaha, Zuege wants to keep everything low key around his young group of athletes.     “I am trying to not put any undue pressure on the guys. We have a bunch of first-time qualifiers who are going to be experiencing the state meet for the first time,” he said.
    “However, we really feel that if we can block it all out and just go compete like we have all year, we could put ourselves right in contention,” he continued, adding the Longhorns just have to concentrate on themselves and their preparation.
    “If we can get to Omaha and set some PR’s, we should be right in the thick of things. One thing I can say with certainty is that there is not another group of guys that I would rather take to Omaha to represent our school and our community. They are a bunch of great kids who have conducted themselves like champions all season long,” Zuege concluded.
    Classes A and B will compete the first two days of the track meet, Wednesday and Thursday. Classes C and D will be in action Friday and Saturday, all at Omaha Burke Stadium.
District C9 meet
Boys team results— 1. Chase County, 217; 2. Gordon-Rushville, 80; 3. Perkins County, 68; 4. Mitchell, 53; 5. Bridgeport, 40; 6. Bayard, 24; 7. Hemingford, 19; 8. Kimball, 10; 9. Morrill, 7.
Individual results
100 Meters—1. Thomas Reeves, 11.42, CCS; 2. Dawson Mollendor, 11.48, CCS.
200 Meters—1. Reeves, 22.86, CCS; 4. Tucker Mollendor, 23.88, CCS; 7. Austin Smith, 24.62, CCS.
400 Meters—1. Easton Fries, 49.78, CCS; 3. Jonathan Sosa, 51.88, CCS; 7. Sergio Quintana, 55.76, CCS.
800 Meters—1. Franklin Johns, 2:00.05, Gordon-Rushville; 4. Zach Herbert, 2:07.99, CCS; 5. Luis Co, 2:11.84, CCS.
1600 Meters—1. Mason McGreer, 4:50.79, PCS; 3. Haven Hauxwell, 5:02.73, CCS; 4. Brayan Reyes, 5:14.30, CCS; 8. Peyton Dubas, 5:40.12, CCS.
3200 Meters—1. McGreer, 10:39.47, PCS; 3. Hauxwell, 10:51.98, CCS; 5. Andrew Wiest, 11:32.32, CCS; 8. Navy Smith, 12:01.50, CCS.
110m Hurdles—1. Fries, 14.95, CCS; 2. Kade Anderson, 15.47, CCS; 4. Jensen Olsen, 15.61, CCS.
300m Hurdles—1. Fries, 39.52, CCS; 3. Anderson, 42.20, CCS; 5. Olsen, 47.07, CCS.
4x100 Relay—1. CCS (Sosa, T. Mollendor; Reeves; D. Mollendor), 44.72.
4x400 Relay—1.CCS (Sosa, Tristan Jablonski, Stephen Murray, Fries), 3:29.09.
4x800 Relay—1. CCS (Jablonski, Co, Murray, Herbert), 8:31.07.
Shot Put—1. Theron Miller, 50-3, Hemingford; 2. Jaret Peterson, 47-8.5, CCS; 3. Jesus Medina, 45-0.5, CCS.
Discus—1. Peterson, 152-0, CCS; 3. Cooper Dillan, 145-5, CCS; 6. Noah Rau, 137-4, CCS.
High Jump—1. Caleb Wilkins, 6-1, Bayard; 5. Kole Clevenger, 5-5, CCS; 7. Cesar Valencia, 5-5, CCS.
Pole Vault—1. Bryce Hodsden, 13-7, Mitchell; 2. Mason Wallin, 13-1, CCS.
Long Jump—1. Clevenger, 20-11.25, CCS; 2. T. Mollendor, 19-11.5, CCS.
Triple Jump—1. Anderson, 42-2.25, CCS; 3. James McArthur, 41-2.25, CCS; 6. Tyler O’Neil, 39-6.25, CCS.