DCS leads area runners at State Cross Country Meet

Monday, October 24, 2016
DCS senior Madison Lambley runs in the opening mile of the Class D girls meet at the Kearney Country Club. Lambley finished a Gazette-best fourth place. Photo by Gabe Gauthier/McCook Gazette.

Lambley sisters, Mote medal in Class D, DCS boys finish top five

KEARNEY, Neb. -- A top-five team performance and five individual medalists were among the highlights for Gazette-area runners at Friday's state cross country meet.

Madison and Sable Lambley of Dundy County-Stratton and Amanda Mote of Hitchcock County had top-15 finishes in the Class D girls' competition, while Bailey Peckham of DCS finished ninth in the boys' division.

DCS head coach Scott Lambley went back to the drawing board following his team's "off" performance at districts.

After a top-five team finish and three individual medalists on Friday, the DCS coach was ecstatic with the way things turned out.

"We completely changed our philosophies," he said. "I've been doing it for the last 14 years, and I'm really happy with how everything turned out."

"We're not gonna change anything next year, we're gonna do exactly like this."

Madison took fourth in Class D girls with a time of 19:47.1, while Sable finished tenth at 20:36.

Not bad for having just two runners in the competition.

"Madison and Sable ran good races," Scott Lambley said. "Madison did it exactly like we had planned. She let the front two girls get away from her, but she ran her second-fastest time all year."

It has become customary for the Lambley sisters to run near each other at meets. However, Sable fell behind early on Friday and had to spend much of the run catching up.

"Sable got herself out of position almost right away," Scott Lambley said. "She got herself buried in that 20-25th spot, and it took her way too long to get back in the mix of things. For her to finish where she did was awesome."

Amanda Mote of Hitchcock County runs with two others close behind during the Class D girls competition. Mote was the lone medalist for the Falcons. Photo by Gabe Gauthier/McCook Gazette.

Mote finished 12th with a time of 20:45.7. It wasn't a personal record, but it was good enough to earn herself a medal in Class D.

It was also a huge improvement over last year's performance. At the 2015 state meet, Mote finished 47th with a time of 22:28.

Mote's teammates at Friday's meet were Savannah Beegle, Samantha Carfield, Marian Carpenter, Angelina Beegle and Layne Merrill.

Hitchcock County was the only area team to compete. The Falcons finished 12th with 190 points.

Cali Gunderson of Cambridge put in an impressive performance for a freshman. She finished 19th with 21:21.2.

Kayla Minary of Maywood/Hayes Center finished 29th with 21:45.4, while teammate MaKena Roberts took 109th with 24.33.3.

Eden Jackson of Eustis-Farnam/Medicine Valley finished 101st with 24:08.5.

Freshman Rylee Rice of Ainsworth won the race with a time of 18:34.3. In the team competition, David City Aquinas claimed gold, with 71 points.

In the boys' division, DCS headlined area performers with a fifth-place team finish. Bailey Peckham led the team with a ninth-place time of 17:27.98, while freshman Philip Boyd took 15th with 17:55.12.

"I was extremely happy with the boys," Scott Lambley said. "Three of the six ran all-time personal bests."

Other Tiger performers were Eli Fink (23rd place, time of 18:21.29), Gideon Fink (36th, 18:40.61), Jeffrey Powell (65th, 19:36) and Matthew Wissink (94th, 21:10.47).

Nathan Nicklas of Eustis-Farnam/Medicine Valley took 33rd with 18:18.7, while teammate Bryan Herrick was 83rd 19:04.2.

Cambridge's Caleb tenBensel (75th, 18:59.1) and Zachariah Miller ( 116th, 20:13.5) were other area performers in Class D boys.

Winning the race was Jonah Heng of Norfolk Catholic with a time of 16:55.1. He claimed a second gold when his team won Class D boys with 61 points.


McCook's Steven Hinze crosses the finish line at Friday's Class B state cross country meet. Hinze was the top finisher for the Bison at 39th place. Photo by Gabe Gauthier/McCook Gazette.

Bison trio finish middle of pack

KEARNEY, Neb. -- McCook's Steven Hinze, Riley Mai and Taye Collicott finished Friday's Class B state cross country meet with 39th, 47th and 52nd-place finishes.

Hinze led the way with a time of 17:48.2. After his 76th place finish in 2015, he took over a minute off his time to jump up to 39th.

Mai was 47th at 17:57, while Collicott finished seven seconds later for 52nd place.

Abdulkadir Mohamed and Osman Geele of South Sioux City/Ponca finished 1-2 with times of 16:15.7 and 16:26.1, respectively.

In the team competition, SSC/Ponca ran away from the competition with a gold-performance of 33 points. Runner-up Mount Michael Benedictine took second with 65 points.

In Class B girls, Aurora won the team title with 36 points, while Mazie Larsen was top finisher with 18:32.5.


Chase County duo perform in Class C

KEARNEY, Neb. -- Will Kuenne and Kaley Hauxwell represented Chase County at the Class C state cross country meet on Friday.

Kuenne finished 23rd in the boys' competition with a time of 17:59.3.

The top overall finisher was sophomore Aidan Wheelock of Minden, who ran 16:41.5. Holdrege won the team title by the narrowest of margins, as the Dusters finished with 46 points to Wahoo's 47.

In the girls' division, Hauxwell took 51st with a time of 22:12.9.

Taya Skelton of Fort Calhoun won Class C with a time of 19:34. Her team finished runner-up to Columbus Scotus, which won gold with 58 points.

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