Bison teams open track season at UNK Indoor

McCook High

boys place 4th,

girls finish 9th

The McCook High School boys and girls track teams opened their schedule by sending a small contingent to the University of Nebraska Indoor Meet Saturday.

The Bison boys placed fourth out of 12 teams with 42 points. Ten of the 14 Bison entries scored points.

The McCook girls placed ninth with 11 points.

"The UNK Indoor Meet is the largest meet (in terms of the number of teams participating) that we go to all season outside of the district and state meets, so the competition is always pretty stiff," said McCook boys coach John Gumb. "I felt we competed very well."

McCook senior Josh Cherry won the boys 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 3.6 seconds. Cherry tailed Aurora's Zach High for most of the race, but outkicked High to win the race by four seconds.

Senior Nate Berry came out of one of the slower heats in the 200 meters to finish third overall with a time of 23.98 seconds.

"This is a very outstanding indoor time," Gumb said. "I have not had many athletes run under 24 seconds indoors at Kearney over the years, so I was very encouraged by this performance of Nate's."

McCook had a strong showing in the boys 55-meter hurdles.

John Swanhorst and Cory Gaston placed second and fourth with times of 8.3 and 8.72 seconds.

Hastings' Nile Schneider won the race with a time of 8.24 seconds.

McCook's 1600-meter relay team of Jon Bryant, Matt Berry, Dillon Goltl and Swanhorst finished second to Gothenburg in a time of 3:41.41.

"We had a mixture of seasoned veterans and newcomers on this team, but they came together and ran an outstanding race," Gumb said.

Mitchell Green placed in two events for the Bison.

He placed fifth in the 55-meter dash in 6.94 seconds and sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 39 feet, 4 inches.

Other place-winners for the Bison were senior Andy Lambing, fifth place, 800 (2:13.79); and junior J.D. Stone, sixth, shot put (47-5).

"J.D.'s mark of 47-5 puts him well ahead of where he was at this point last year, so we have high expectations for him in 2007."

Just missing the top six and the points was senior Brett Burton, who placed seventh in the long jump with a mark of 19-7 3/4.

Bison junior Michael Jordan was 10th in the high jump. He cleared 5-4.

Senior Austin Barenberg was 19th in the 200 finals with a time of 26.04 and 20th in the 55 prelims in 7.16.

The McCook girls competed in only five events at the UNK Indoor.

Senior Austin Wilson placed third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.27 seconds and third in the 55-meter dash in 7.89.

Kelsee Meissner was fourth in the shot put with a personal record effort of 34-5.

Audrey Hagan was sixth in the long jump with a mark of 15-1.

Molly Peck was seventh in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 10.43 seconds.

Sydney Jumps was eighth in the shot put with a mark of 32-9 1/2. Teammate Emily Slattery was 25th with a mark of 25-3.

Adrianna Hagan was ninth in the 200 (29.99) and Samantha Post was 21st in 31.55.

Megan Skiles placed 15th in the 55-meter dash prelims in 8.31 and Erica Clapp was 18th in 8.48.

"The handful of girls who competed did a very respectable job and represented us well," said McCook girls track coach Steve Clapp.

"We were able to score or make the finals in all five events that we entered.

"With less commitments, we should be able to field athletes in the majority of events at our next meet."

The Bison boys and girls will host a dual Friday against North Platte. The meet starts at 4 p.m.

The Bison will host the LeRoy Hoehner varsity/junior varsity meet March 31.