McCook athletes strong at Lex track meet

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Andy Smith of McCook tries to sneak over the bar set at 14 feet during last Friday's boys pole vault event at Lexington. Smith missed this attempt, but he placed third after clearing 13-6.

LEXINGTON -- The McCook High School track and field teams competed in a unique event Friday, April 23.

The Don Bader Invitational at Lexington High School featured some of the top prep track and field athletes from the south-central part of the Cornhusker State, ranging from Class A schools down to Class D. No team scores are compiled in the annual meet, meaning schools can focus on individual results instead of team titles.

If team scores had been tabulated, both McCook teams would have been at the top of the final standings. The McCook girls coaching staff always goes through the final results at the Bader Invite to see how the Bison girls would have finished. Head coach Steve Clapp said his team would have finished first Friday.

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook's Whitney Korgan wears a determined espression as she gets up to full speed in the girls 100-meter dash last Friday at the Don Bader Invitational track and field meet at Lexington High School. Korgan finished second in the 100, and she won the 200-meter dash.

"Coach (George) Briggs, our statistician, loves to do that," Clapp said. "If it was a scored meet we would have won. And Coach Briggs said in years when we don't do well he's not going to score it."

McCook's quality athletes came through with strong individual performances in both girls and boys divisions.

Sughroue, Korgan pace Bison girls

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Kelsea Geschwentner (right) of McCook hands the baton to teammate Katie West in the girls 1,600-meter relay at the Don Bader Invitational track and field meet last Friday at Lexington. Geschwentner, West and Bison teammates Whitney Korgan and Jessa Sughroue combined for a winning time of 4 minutes, 17.4 seconds in the relay race.

In the girls competition, Bison standouts Whitney Korgan and Jessa Sughroue had strong performances.

Sughroue won her specialty events, the 400-meter dash and 800-meter run. Jessa's winning time in the 400 was 1 minute, 1.1 seconds, with a gap of over three seconds back to second place. Sughroue was clocked in 2:26.7 in the 800, nearly seven seconds ahead of her closest competitor.

Korgan breezed to first place in the girls 200-meter dash with a time of 26.5 seconds, winning by nearly a second in the finals. Korgan also placed second in the 100.

"We were hoping for a little better quality kids to push Jessa Sughroue in the 400 and maybe even Whitney in the 200, someone that they would have to get up and really run with," Coach Clapp said. "That just didn't happen.

"It was a good meet. On paper, we ended up being pretty tough again. I think our kids performed well, they competed well. We just didn't, in all cases, improve on times or throws or jumps. We were hoping that would happen a little more."

Clapp gave a stiff south wind a little credit for his girls marks, as the competitors had to run into the wind on the backstretch.

"Some of our kids handle wind real well, and some of them don't," Clapp said. "Some of our distance runners were a little disappointed in their times, but sometimes (in adverse weather conditions) you just have to look at how you compete against other teams rather than how your times turned out."

Field event success for Bison boys

The Bison boys were strong as usual in the field events. Head coach Tom Sughroue noted several strong efforts by his Bison boys in the field events, including the pole vault, throws and horizontal jumps.

"Our field (event) guys did perform very well again," he said. "It's just a great thing to see our kids doing well and continue to get better."

One of the top efforts for McCook came in the pole vault, with three Bison clearing 13 feet. Andy Smith placed third with a season-best mark of 13-6, and he just missed clearing 14 feet. Kyle Craw and Matt Chitwood finished ninth and tenth, respectively, as both cleared 13-0.

Chance Pearson continued a strong season in the long jump, as he won the event with a mark of 21 feet, 1 inch. Mark Nichols claimed the gold medal in the triple jump with a mark of 44 feet, 1 1/2 inches.

AJ Huffman returned to form with a toss of 151 feet, 9 inches to place sixth in the discus. Teammates Garrett Wagner and Austin Bishop both hit personal bests in the discus. Wagner placed seventh at 145-10, and Bishop was ninth at 136-7.

Hurdlers shine for Bison

Coach Sughroue singled out Cody Goltl for a strong race in the 110-meter high hurdle finals. Goltl placed fifth in a tough field with a season-best time of 15.6 seconds.

"Cody didn't place as high as he wanted (fifth), but he was running against a very tough field of hurdlers," Sughroue said.

Katie West drew praise from Coach Clapp for her effort in the girls 100-meter intermediate hurdles. West placed second with a time of 16.3 seconds.

Coach Clapp said West switched from the sprints and jumps to the hurdles this season.

"She was competitive but not quite where she wanted to be (in the sprints and jumps), so she tried hurdles this year," Clapp said."Its tough to pick up the hurdling events in one year, but she's done an excellent job and has been getting real close the last couple weeks to completing races. (Friday) it kind of happened where she ran against good competition."

Clapp said West's time in the finals Friday moved her into the McCook girls all-time Top 10 chart in the 100 hurdles.

"That was a real, real plus for our team, and also a real plus for Katie," Clapp said. "She's worked hard in track and field, and I think she's finally found the event she's best suited for."

The Bison varsity squads will enter the Holdrege Invitational Friday, April 30.