Stories from Friday, October 8, 2021

McCOOK, Neb. — From no points at halftime to their highest scoring game this season? The McCook Bison achieved just that Friday night, scoring four second-half touchdowns during a 28-9 win over visiting Gering at Weiland Field. McCook (3-4 record) trailed 3-0 entering halftime while trying to stop a rare three-game winless streak...

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook Bison tennis boys finished a brilliant season with their clean sweep of North Platte, 8-0, Thursday night. Seniors Night was perfect to see No. 1 player Isaac Hinze reach 35-0 entering this weekend’s East-West Shoout at Kearney...

BERTRAND, Neb. — The Arapahoe Warriors' 32-12 win at Bertrand Friday night means those Warriors are now 7-0 and remain a lone unbeaten among all Gazette-area varsity football teams. Bertrand (5-2) had suffered only one other defeat this season, 28-20, to defending Class D-1 state champion Dundy County-Stratton on Sept. 3...

McCOOK, Neb. — There have been some interesting items donated to the Helping Hands thrift store in McCook through its 60-plus years of operation. There was the stuffed boar’s head. A 16-foot canoe and trailer. What looked like a Roman soldier body armor. Then there were the vintage items like the Native American headdress and a baseball bat from the 1920s...

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook Board of Education will discuss selecting an architect for remodeling the junior high, or the construction of a new junior high, at the regular meeting Monday, 6:30 p.m., Oct. 11, at the junior high conference room. Selecting an architect firm may take place afterward, if a board member makes a motion...

90th birthday The family of Janet McKillip of Hayes Center, Neb., is requesting a card shower in honor of her 90th birthday on Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. Her family includes children, Joyce and Larry Vinson of Sallisaw, Okla., Marjorie and Larry Porter, Nancy and Joel Willers and Rodney and Alice McKillip, all of McCook; 10 grandkids and numerous great-grandkids and great-great-grandkids. Cards of congratulations will reach her at 37470 Road 732A, Hayes Center, NE 69032...

A new addition to the SWNGS library is a 1931 R.L. Polk & Co. directory. Because this directory is prior to the 1935 flood that changed the layout of south McCook, it is fascinating to look at the listed residents for that area, residents that we know lost everything in the flood. ...

BERTRAND, Neb. — Alma-Southern Valley’s Saints stepped up to make a great run for the RPAC boys cross-country team title Thursday. The Saints took a close second, just four points from catching champion and host Bertrand-Loomis. Griffin Stemper was second (18:47) as only Paxton’s Damin Luedke (17:35) ran a faster 5,000 meters across the Bertrand course...

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook Junior High eighth-graders won 50-8 on Tuesday and coach Nick Umscheid provided these insights: “There was a running clock most of the 2nd half. I tell people that we are the “Greatest Show on Turf”! Tristan Campbell was the workhorse for us last night scoring several touchdowns...

BERTRAND, Neb. — The Wallace Wildcats won by four points in a fantastic RPAC cross country girls title race with Cambridge Thursday afternoon. Senior Mariah Gardner repeated as RPAC champion (22:14) while teammates Ashley Robertson and Ryleigh Hanson were both Top 10 medalists...

MAYWOOD, Neb. — Maywood-Hayes Center outscored Axtell after halftime but still dropped a 36-22 varsity football game Thursday night. Senior quarterback Brennan Runge threw two touchdowns among his four of six completed passes for the 2-5 Wildcats. The visitors led 16-8 through one quarter and 24-8 entering halftime...

TRENTON, Neb. — The Hitchcock County Falcons held their fifth opponent to six points or less this season with a 54-0 shutout of visiting Maxwell Thursday night. Technically, one defensive gem was the 2-0 opening forfeit against Kimball. Yet coach Randall Rath’s Falcons have blanked Alma (60-0), smothered Cambridge (30-6) and added Maxwell (54-0) to their dominant hit list...

GOTHENBURG, Neb. — A narrow 27-25 finale stopped McCook’s quest to inflict volleyball vengeance on Lexington and Gothenburg Thursday evening. The Bison dropped that match to Lex 25-17, 27-25; after an earlier 25-9, 25-15 Swedes victory over McCook. Coach Audrey Feeney’s 7-16 team were coming off a five-win week including three at the Scottsbluff tourney...

McCOOK, Neb. — Freshman Josiah Wilkinson and sophomore Grant Cappel led the McCook Bison with top 10 finishes at Thursday’s Southwest Conference championship meet. Senior Josh Hegwood was only three spots from joining them while continuing to get stronger after last winter’s inury...

McCOOK, Neb. — The future’s running really fast and strong as Thursday’s Southwest Conference cross country meet proved again Thursday. McCook eighth-grader Emma Cappel blazed to the title almost 14 seconds faster than her closest challenger at Heritage Hills...

McCOOK, Neb. — Sami Rodewald’s taking the power of positive thinking to fantastic heights this fall. “I was running at UNK, and I just thought ‘I want to win this thing’,” the McCook junior said about that Class B showdown at Kearney Country Club last week...

McCOOK, Neb. — Five human cases of West Nile Virus have been reported in the Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department nine-county health district. Three are positive clinical cases of West Nile Virus currently receiving medical care and two are blood donors who also tested positive but were not symptomatic...

McCOOK, Neb. — COVID-19 vaccines are effective against the Delta variant, according to the Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department. “Within the nine-county health district, the majority of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have been in unvaccinated individuals,” according to a release...

Technology can be a lifesaver if it works, but we have to understand what it is trying to tell us if it is to be effective. Toward that end, the National Fire Protection Association has chosen “Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety” as a theme for this week’s Fire Prevention Week observance...

McCOOK, Neb. — Jay and Jordan Johnson and their children, Reeslyn, 7, Wrigley, 5, and Ryer, 2, are grateful to be safe and sound after their home was destroyed in a fire caused by lightning Aug. 9. It was 11:50.18 p.m. to be exact, according to a lightning monitor, when the bolt struck “like a bomb!” Jordan said, with four other similar strikes within .4 of a mile...

SCOTTSBLUFF – The McCook Community College volleyball team dropped a pair of matches Friday to two Top 20 ranked teams. MCC lost three-set matches to No. 16 Western Nebraska and No. 2 Iowa Western. “We played I feel like what you could call close with two great teams, without doing some of the little things we have been working on,” said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza...

LA JUNTA, Colo. – The McCook Community College Golf Team tied an all-time, one-day team scoring record Friday but still came up short. Eastern Wyoming held off MCC to claim the Otero Junior College tournament to cap the fall portion of the year-long Region IX standings chase. The Lancers won by nine shots, 558-567...