Stories from Friday, January 22, 2021

Team standings and individual results from the RPAC wrestling championships at Southern Valley High School on Friday. More photos and details in the Gazette early next week. Guaranteed Places 1st Place - Garrett Latimer of Southwest 2nd Place - Cole Broeker of Southern Valley...

HASTINGS, Neb. — It has to be super when words like slobber and knocker are used to describe a wrestling dual. Sure enough, McCook coach Nick Umscheid used these two words to describe a thrilling 42-39 dual with Class B No. 1 Hastings Thursday night...

TRENTON, Neb. — The Hitchcock County Falcons and Sutherland Sailors both controlled Thursday’s wrestling quadrangular at Trenton. Hitchcock handled Cambridge, 45-30; and conquered Chase County, 60-6, in this home event after earning a tournament title last weekend...

MCCOOK, Neb. — River Johnston's 31 points led a North Platte 38-12 second half and stunning 60-52 comeback win over the McCook High varsity boys tonight (Friday). The Bison built a terrific 40-24 halftime lead behind sophomore Evan Humphrey's 15 points, including one final triple just before that first-half buzzer...

CURTIS, Neb. — The Medicine Valley Raiders kept momentum rolling with a 51-44 girls home win over Hi-Line Thursday evening. Senior Acelyn Klein set the tone for sure. She scored all 12 first-quarter Raider points en route to a game-high 26. Freshman Stella Heapy and sophomore Milia Farr added eight points each as the Raiders improved to 8-4...

A look at all the pairings and schedule for Saturday's RPAC basketball tournament first-round play which will conclude at Cambridge High this year on Saturday, Jan. 30 with the two title games. EAST At Arapahoe No. 2 Medicine Valley girls vs. No. 7 Arapahoe, 11 a.m...

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. – The McCook Community College volleyball team came from two sets down to score a season-opening win Friday over Central Wyoming then dropped the second match of the day to nationally ranked Utah State University Eastern 0-3. MCC beat the Rustlers 22-25, 20-25, 30-28, 25-21 and 15-8 in the opening match of the Western Nebraska Crossover Classic. The Lady Indians then fell to 12th ranked Utah State University Eastern, 19-25, 20-25 and 21-25...

Robert “Bob” Lewis Christie July 1, 1930 - Jan. 20, 2021 McCOOK,Neb. — Robert “Bob” Lewis Christie, 90, of McCook, passed away Wednesday evening, Jan. 20, 2021 at his home in McCook. He was born to Robert and Clara (Schoonover) Christie on July 1, 1930, in Joliet, Ill. ...

90th birthday The family of Donna Chambers of McCook is requesting a card shower in honor of her 90th birthday on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. She was born in Jennings, Kan., and is a 1948 graduate of Decatur Community High School in Oberlin, Kan. Her family includes Bob and Julie Chambers of Colorado, Barbara Higgins of Florida, Don and Mary Jo Chambers of Hays, Kan., Jerry and Francine Chambers of McCook, Anita Chambers of McCook, Doug and Rhonda Chambers of Culpeper, Va., Janet and Dick Haag of Indianola, Neb., 15 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. ...

85th birthday The family of Audrey Suiter of McCook is requesting a card shower in honor of her 85th birthday on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. She was born in McCook and has lived her entire life in Southwest Nebraska. Her family includes husband, James Suiter of McCook, children, Timothy Suiter of Omaha, Neb., Sean (Sarah) Suiter of Omaha, Brian (Tami) Suiter of Lincoln, Neb., Chad (Julie) Suiter of Johnston, Iowa, Angela (William) Blankenau of Manhattan, Kan.; 13 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. ...

There’s one in every generation, the child that snoops. No corner, drawer, trunk, cupboard, desk, box or closet is safe from the family snooper. They give themselves away, unknowingly, when one of their parents is trying to remember where some object was placed for safekeeping and a little voice says: “it’s in the upstairs closet.”...

LINCOLN, Neb. —  Work on the first Super 2 highway in Nebraska is progressing on schedule, with the majority of the work completed on the 10-mile segment of US-83 between mile markers 35 and 45 by Frazier Creek in Frontier County, according to District 7 Construction Engineer Drew Wilson. Work began in the spring of 2020 on the first of six projects that will be part of the US-83 Super 2...

McCOOK, Neb. - With Wednesday being the final day of bill introduction in the Nebraska Unicameral, District 44 State Senator Dan Hughes believes that this group of legislators are “an ambitious bunch”. That is because the body has introduced 684 bills and 29 resolutions to be debated, withdrawn, passed or killed during the session. Hughes spoke to a group of constituents through a Zoom meeting sponsored by McCook Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning...

McCOOK, Neb— The Nebraska State Patrol officer who helped rescue a puppy found last year with multiple stab wounds recently had the chance to see him again. Almost a year ago, the NSP responded to a call of a severely injured dog in rural Furnas County. NSP officer Amanda Sackett arrived on the scene, the three- to four-month-old puppy covered in blood and wrapped in a blanket by the family who found him. She put him on the front seat of the car and drove to McCook...

McCOOK, Neb. – One community organization is celebrating a financially successful 2020. McCook Chamber President Dawson Brunswick told the Gazette that the chamber ended 2020 with the first net profit it had experienced in six years. He said that despite the pandemic, the chamber was able to build a lot of strong relationships with the business community throughout the year...

Noticeably absent from this week’s inauguration festivities was our oldest living President. Jimmy Carter, who excused himself for health reasons. Mr. Carter, or as I call him, “Jimma,” was born in October of 1924 and has survived at least one bout with cancer. He’s not getting any younger, and I fear that we won’t have him for much longer...

At the south end of Norris Avenue in McCook sits what I consider one of our most under-utilized, not-fully appreciated and oft-maligned assets: the Amtrak train service. Last week, I, along with my two youngest children, hopped the train for our yearly ski trip. We boarded with another half dozen people, a few from McCook whereas others had driven to McCook, specifically to catch the train. (And yes, it was late by an hour, but it can’t be early because we would get left behind.)...

OGALLALA, Neb. — McCook Junior High’s seventh-grade ‘A’ boys basketball team trounced Ogallala, 52-31, Thursday for a second big win this week. Miles Pollmann scored 17 points, Bryson Gullion 13 and Brody Graham 10 to follow a strong victory at North Platte...

ARAPAHOE, Neb. — Southern Valley's basketball teams delivered 57-35 and 50-28 varsity wins over the Arapahoe Warriors Thursday night leading into RPAC tourney play starting Saturday. Individual stats were not obtained for the Eagles from either game...

CAMBRIDGE, Neb. ­—Junior Carsyn Hanes connected on two late three-point shots to put the final touch on Cambridge’s solid 37-24 win over Dundy County-Stratton Thursday. Don’t look now, but the Trojans (7-8) are warming up just like last year when they won an RPAC tournament title...

CAMBRIDGE, Neb. — RPAC tournament fans will be delighted to get a game like Dundy County-Stratton at Cambridge boys Thursday evening. The Trojans fired sso many great shots at DC-S while attempting to avenge a big defeat in December. In fact, they took a 56-47 fourth-quarter lead on Cole Fiene’s determined through Tiger defenders for another lay-up...

McCOOK, Neb. — Coach Chelsa Jonte provided this information about the McCook freshman girls’ basketball win Monday night. “The Lady Bison beat Ogallala 37 - 21. Leading the pack was Shawnta Koetter with 9 points. She also contributed to our defense by having 6 steals...

McCOOK, Neb. — The midst of a pandemic wasn’t the ideal time for McCook Community College Men’s Basketball Coach Jacob Brandl to start his head coaching career. But then again, hardly any coach had an ideal time in 2020. Recruiting was done almost exclusively virtually, questions lingered about the eventual season postponement, and some players looking for a college team hadn’t had access to gyms for workouts since their seasons ended last February and March...

BARTLEY, Neb. — Sophomore Bailey Truksa hit a trio of three-pointers while classmate Caylin Barnett delivered another double-double, but the visiting Loomis Wolves won 50-37 over Southwest High's girls Tuesday evening. Barnett totaled 19 points (10 for 10 on free throws) with 10 rebounds to follow her 26-point effort last weekend...

McCOOK, Neb. -- A Hays, Kan., man was arrested early Thursday on drug and weapons charges, according to the McCook Police Department. According to a Facebook post, "on January 21, 2021, at around 0036 hours officers with the McCook Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle for expired in-transit tags. During the course of the traffic stop, officers developed reasonable suspicion of drug activity involving the driver and the vehicle...