Bison teams strong at Dutch Zorn track meet

Thursday, April 18, 2013

GOTHENBURG, Neb. -- Mother Nature is not being very hospitable to area high school athletes so far this spring.

McCook's boys and girls varsity teams competed Friday, April 12, at the annual Dutch Zorn Invitational at Gothenburg. The meet was held under cold temperatures at the Gothenburg High School complex.

The McCook teams both earned runner-up finishes in their respective final team standings.

The Bison boys scored 127 points to finish 4 1/2 points behind champion Kearney JV. The McCook girls scored 90 points, trailing champion Holdrege with 100.

McCook boys head coach Tom Sughroue was very pleased with his team's performance in a tough field.

"I thought we had a nice day," Sughroue said. "Kearney's JV, they always have a lot of kids out (for track and field), and they always bring some quality athletes. I thought we had some nice performances."

McCOOK HIGHLIGHTS from the meet came in the boys throwing events, with the Collicott twins recording best-ever marks.

Matt Collicott won the discus with a personal-best throw of 151 feet, 1 inch. Matt's throw was just short of a spot on the Bison all-time boys discus Top 10 chart. Mitch Collicott also was first in the shot put with a heave of 52 feet, 6 1/2 inches -- a half-inch farther that his previous PR set earlier this season and fifth on the all-time Bison Top 10.

Coach Sughroue said the Collicott's efforts rank among the best in the state's Class B ranks so far this spring, according to the Omaha World-Herald's state charts.

Lucas Post also placed fifth in the discus at 135-3.

Austin Cherry ran the 200-meter dash, and the senior ran away from the field with his first-place time of 22.67 seconds, winning by nearly a second. Cody Wudtke also had a winning time of 11.36 seconds in the 100-meter dash. Wudtke also placed fifth in the high jump at 5-9.

Jake Schlager returned to action for the Bison after nursing a leg injury early this season. Schlager hit four consistent marks in the long jump, with a winning jump of 21 feet, 9 1/2 inches. The Bison scored big points in the jumps, with Bryce Lyons second in the long jump at 20-10 1/2 and fourth in the triple jump at 40-1 1/4. Teammate Darius Williams also placed second in the triple jump at 41 feet even, and Cody Jankovits was sixth in the long jump at 19-6.

Hunter Felker also earned a second-place medal in the 800 at 2:07.66. Jacob Riemann picked up a fourth-place medal in the 300 hurdles at 43.35 seconds. Trevor Pate placed fifth in the 1,600 at 4:56.26.

McCOOK was potent in the relay events with a pair of gold medals.

The Bison 400 quartet of Schlager, Cherry, Zayne Gillen and Wudtke blazed to their fastest time of the season at 43.84 seconds. The McCook 3,200 relay team of Pate, Cherry, Riemann and Felker also turned in the fastest time of the season at 8:22.99. Both Bison relay times ranks among the state Class B leaders.

Friday marked the first time Cherry has competed on the Bison 3,200 relay team this season. Coach Sughroue will have some options with the senior star and several others when it comes to district meet competition and hopeful state next month.

"You're always looking for options --where can you score the best when we get down to Omaha," Sughroue said. "That's just some of the things we were looking at. We wanted to see how we could run, and I thought we ran pretty well. There's room for improvement in that particular race (3,200 relay)."

DESPITE LESS than ideal weather conditions, the McCook girls recorded a number of personal-best marks in Friday's meet.

"It was a pretty competitive meet," said McCook head coach Steve Clapp. "Our kids maintained their times, and we had a number of PR's. From my standpoint, it was a pretty gritty group of (McCook) girls that competed. They went out, and even though they may not have enjoyed the weather conditions, still ran as hard they could run and still jumped as far as they could jump and threw as far as they could. I thought they performed very well."

Perhaps the top effort for the Bison girls came in the shot put ring, where junior Maddie Elder continues to push the bar higher.

Elder improved her career best mark and eclipsed the 40-foot barrier for the first time ever with her second-place throw of 40 feet, 9 3/4. Elder is third on the all-time McCook girls shot put Top 10 chart.

Two other Bison girls also hit personal bests in the shot put. Tiara Schmidt threw 36 feet, 3 3/4 inches to place sixth, and Makayla Payton went 33-9 1/4 to finish eighth overall.

Elder also placed third in the discus at 114-9, and Schmidt hit a career-best mark of 96-1 but did not place.

Molly Sughroue improved her season-best time in the 800-meter run with a winning time of 2 minutes, 18.83 seconds. Abi Mohr had a strong day with a runner-up finish in the pole vault at 10 feet even and fourth place in the 100-meter high hurdles at 16.69 seconds. Mohr also ran sixth in the 100 at 13.73.

Rachel Goltl continued her strong efforts in the 300 low hurdles, as she was just fractions of a second off her career-best time with a 49.15 clocking to place third.

Megan Ruppert turned in a strong day with three individual medals. Ruppert ran a personal-best time of 1:03.99 to place third in the 400-meter dash. She also went 15 feet, 7 3/4 inches to place fourth in the long jump, and 32-4 3/4 in the triple jump to place sixth.

Madison Chitwood also finished third in the high jump when she cleared 4 feet, 10 inches.

Asti Randa and Kaity Elder placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 200-meter dash.

THE McCOOK girls also won a pair of relay gold medals.

The Bison 1,600-meter quartet of Ruppert, Caitlin Leitner, Golth and Sughroue was clocked in 4 minutes, 10.87 seconds. The Bison sprint medley relay team of Ashton Harpham, Kaity Elder, Sughroue and Leitner also won with a time of 4:32.80. The sprint medley relay features a pair of 200-meter legs, a 400 and an 800.

McCook's 400 relay team of Randa, Kaity Elder, Madison Shepherd and Mohr also placed third with a time of 52.56 seconds.

Coach Clapp had praise for his senior quartet of Ruppert, Goltl, Madison Chitwood and Veronica Bair for their leadership and performances so far this spring.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: