McCook boys track qualifies 10 for state

OGALLALA -- The McCook High School boys track placed second at the Class B-6 District meet Thursday afternoon at Ogallala.

The Bison will send 10 athletes to the Nebraska State Track and Field Championships next week at Omaha Burke High School.

Gothenburg won the B-6 district boys title with 107 points, followed by McCook 93, Gering 80, Sidney 66, Chase County-Imperial 60, Alliance 41, Chadron 35, Valentine 23 and Ogallala 22. Kimball did not earn any team points.

The top four finishers in each event qualified for the state meet.

"Our kids generally step it up at districts," said McCook boys track coach John Gumb, whose team posted 14 personal-best efforts. "This year was no exception."

McCook captured three individual district titles:

- McCook senior Nathan Reicks finished first in the discus with a throw of 152 feet, 3 inches. Reicks' win was a pleasant surprise, said Gumb.

"We don't remember having a district champion in the throws," he said.

Teammate Stuart Frazier also qualified for state with a fourth-place effort of 141-7.

- The 4x100-meter relay team of Krae Dutoit, Kyle Bedore, Ben Klug and freshman Brendan Liess finished first with a time of 43.4 seconds, but not without a bit of an adventure.

"Krae Dutoit had to make a head-long dive to hand the baton to Kyle Bedore," Gumb said. "Krae will have a few scrapes and bruises."

This is the 17th consecutive year that McCook has qualified its 4x100 relay team for state.

- Liess qualified for state in three other events and competed in six races altogether, including heats in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

He ran the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay team that posted a time of 3:25.2.

Also on the relay were Derek Ruppert, Dutoit and Klug.

Liess finished third in the 100 final with a time of 11 seconds flat and was fourth in the 200 final with a time of 22.4.

The first three runners in the 200 were clocked at 22.1, 22.2 and 22.3.

- Carl Fritz finished first in the triple jump with a mark of 44 feet even and added a third-place mark of 21-7 3/4 in the long jump.

Other qualifying efforts for McCook:

- The Bison just missed qualifying three runners in the 3200-meter race.

Jeremiah Herron, Andrew Yeager and Shawn McMurtrey placed 2-3-5 with times of 10:11.3, 10:11.5 and 10:22.6. McMurtrey missed fourth place by 4.10.

- junior Trent Lyons placed second in the pole vault with a personal-record effort of 13-8.

The first-pace winner Blake Houchin of Gothenburg set a meet record by clearing 14-10.

Just missing:

- Senior Nolan Brown just missed qualifying for state in the 110-meter hurdles. He finished sixth with a personal-record time of 15 seconds flat.

He beat his previous-best mark of 15.4 set earlier this season and missed fourth place by two-tenths of a second.

"The time is good for third place on our all-time charts," said Gumb. "Nolan has been a great hurdler for us. We were hoping he could get through."

- Bedore finished fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.2 and Ruppert was fifth in the 400 with a time of 51.4.

- Andrew Yeager was fifth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:39.5.

Chase County

Chase County senior Ed Kaiser will go back to Omaha to defend his Class B state title in the high jump. He won last year with a 6-9 effort.

Kaiser won the district high jump title by clearing 6-5. His teammate Nathan Wenzlick also cleared 6-5 and placed second.

Kaiser won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.3 and Wenzlick won the 300-meter hurdles in 39.3.

The Chase County 4x800-meter relay team placed third with a time of 8:29.6.

Cousins John and Brian Strand finished 3-4 in the shot put with marks of 50-4 and 49-10 1/2.

Placing fifth and not qualifying for the Longhorns were Brian Strand, discus (140-8); Wenzlick, 110 hurdles (14.9); and Jason Burke, 800 (2:02.8).