Family lifts McCook state vaulter

McCook coach Bill Ramsay (second from left) proudly saw four of his Bison pole vaulters reach this week’s Nebraska State Championship Track and Field Meet at Omaha Burke Stadium. Competing in Class B will be (from left) senior returning state qualifier Haiden Loop, junior Tyler Lytle, sophomores Landon Towne and Joel Carter. The Bison boys compete Friday morning with girls on Saturday.

R.B. Headley/McCook Gazette

MCCOOK, Neb. — They’ll never stop raising the bar on how much McCook’s three state-qualifying pole vaulters push each other.

“We cheer for each other. But yeah, we want to go higher than the other,” sophomores Joel Carter, Landon Towne and junior Tyler Lytle greed. “It’s like that every day in practice.”

Yet Joel Carter has two other power sources who barely have to move a muscle.

Older brother Josh Carter suffered an early-season, Bison career-ending injury that prevented from returning to Omaha as a state qualifier this week.

Josh made the trip to Ogallala for B-6 district last week — and those three Bison state qualifiers certainly noticed.

“He still has the edge on me, and Josh made his final vault which not many can say,” Joel Carter proclaimed. “He’s definitely helped all of us through the season.”

Meanwhile, dad Charley Carter could not be seen not far away during the B-6 meet.

Charley suffered his own major injury during a hunting accident, but that didn’t stop dad from cheering Joel’s every attempt to clear a taller height.

“He’s busy (truck) driving, so it’s not easy to make it to meets,” Joel explained. “It was great to have him here today.”

Joel cleared the state-qualifying mark of 13’2” while teammate Lytle hit a career-best 13’8”.

Towne topped all Bison vaulters at B-6 with his 14’2”, though he’s cleared higher marks earlier this season.

The trio are all aiming for great vaulters like Gothenburg junior Tyce Hruza. His district champion mark of 15’7” leads Class B entering Friday morning’s showdown.

Junior Jack Hodge from Douglas County holds the second highest mark (15’1”). Towne’s right there with Milford senior Drake Burton (14’8”), Columbus senior Chase Andresen (14’2”) and Broken Bow senior Joel Myers (14’2”).

It should be quite a first Class B state meet for all three Bison.

“The great thing is we’ll all be back next year,” Towne said. “So we are only going to get better. But we want to make our mark for sure (Friday).”

Watch for result at mccookgazette.com Friday and Saturday.