Bison boys rumble into top five; junior high boys second

MINDEN, Neb. — McCook top 10 finisher Josiah Wilkinson and top 15 fellow medalist Grant Cappel powered the McCook boys to their Southwest Conference No. 5 team finish Thursday.

Wilkinson finished the Minden course in 17:45 which wasn’t far from pushing into the league’s top five.

Determined Cappel claimed that final SWC medal when he finished seconds faster than Ogallala’s Caiden Castillo (18:08).

Other fastest McCook SWC finishers in a field of 78 were Grant Wells (48th, 20:01), sophomore Josh Wilkinson (50th, 20:10), freshman Jack Bates (53rd, 20:20), senior Caleb Wilkinson (56th, 20:36) and junior Joe Barenburg (57th, 20:55).

The Bison will aim for faster times during next week’s huge district met at Ogallala.

SWC team scores: 1. Gothenburg 18, 2. Minden 51, 3. Holdrege 54, 4. Broken Bow 58, 5. McCook 100, 6. Ogallala 113, 7. Cozad 116, 8. Valentine 120.

Top 15 placers: 1. P. Graves, GOTH, 16:40; 2. E. Olsen, GOTH, 16:58; 3. N. Osmond, Bow, 17:07; 4. N. Schrock, HOLD, 17:16; 5. T. Gibb, MIND, 17:28; 6. N. Sager, GOTH, 17:28; 7. C. Jameson, MIND, 17:29; 8. B. Oeltjen, Bow, 17:29; 9. Y. Gaeta, GOTH, 17:35; 10. Josiah Wilkinson, MC, 17:45; 11. L. Levario, COZ, 17:52; 12. J. Golus, HOLD, 17:58; 13. A. Flores, GOTH, 18:00; 14. B. VanBoening, HOLD, 18:00; 15. Grant Cappel, MC, 18:02.

Junior High

McCook boys finished second only to Gothenburg among six teams in a race covering 3,000 meters Thursday.

Eighth-grader Ethan Boner ran to ninth place (11:41) and seventh-grader Axel Blomstedt captured 10th just one second off Boner’s pace (11:42).

Warren Witt (17th, 12:16) and Jacob Harms (18th, 12:31) joined Jon White (21st, 12:59) and Caleb Sughroue (23rd, 13:13) as other Bison leaders in a field of 47.