finish 2nd in

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vault, discus

NORFOLK -- The big winner in Friday's Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference track meet at Norfolk was Mother Nature.

Only a handful of events took place before the skies opened and washed out the rest of the meet.

"This year seems all we talk about is the weather," said McCook boys co-coach Tom Sughroue. "GNAC was no different. The forecast called for rain and that is exactly what we had. The meet did start with cloudy skies and no rain. About an hour into the meet the rain started.

"We were able to complete the long jump, discus, high jump, and the 4x800 in their entirety before the meet was called due to weather.

"This was the first time the conference meet was cancelled since it was formed."

Two McCook individuals placed in the meet. Andrew Reitz pole vaulted 12 feet, 6 inches, placing him second.

"The event was called due to weather," Sughroue said. "It just became to dangerous for the event to continue."

Sam Frazier placed second in the discus with a throw just over 150 feet.

"Again the weather had a huge part in the event," Sughroue said. "The first two flights were fortunate enough to have a dry ring and no rain.

"The last flight that Sam was in was not so fortunate. The rain started to pour down making it very difficult to move across the ring and hold onto the discus.

"It is unfortunate that we travel that far and not be able to finish the meet, but being six days from districts the concerns outweighed the benefits of completing the meet."

Results for the McCook girls were also limited because of the weather.

The 4x800-meter relay team of Tara Powell, Joanna Bryant, Haley Harpham and Jessa Sughroue placed third with a time of 10:16.5.

Kelsee Meissner placed third in the shot put with a toss of 39-2 1/2. Teammate Sydney Jumps was fifth with a toss of 35-5- 1/4.

In the long jump, Kali Lyons and Ashley Palic placed sixth and seventh with marks of 14-10 3/4 and 14-10 1/2.

Shelby Woitaszewski placed ninth in the high jump. She cleared 4-6.

The McCook boys and girls travel to Scottsbluff on Thursday for the Nebraska Class B6 district meet.

Bison girls coach Steve Clapp said Scottsbluff, last year's Class B state champion, is the team to beat at the district meet.

"Scottsbluff has most of their firepower back," Clapp said. "A host of teams in the B-6 district have a number of excellent athletes which will make a very competitive district in almost all events.

"With a large number of excellent athletes, the relays will come down to four or five teams in each relay that will be potential state qualifiers. The McCook girls will be in the hunt in a number of events."

Other schools competing are Alliance, Chadron, Gering, Gordon-Rushville, Gothenburg, Mitchell, Ogallala, Sidney and Valentine.

Southern Valley will compete at the Class C-9 district meet at Franklin.

Cambridge, Chase County, Dundy County-Stratton, Perkins County and Southwest will compete at the Class C-10 district meet at Hershey.

Area schools competing at the Class D-9 district meet at Arapahoe are Arapahoe, Eustis-Farnam, Hayes Center, Hitchcock County, Maywood, Medicine Valley, Wallace and Wauneta-Palisade.