Champions again! Bison girls outrun Whippets for SWC

McCook freshman Brecken Gale ran to a Southwest Conference top 15 place for the champion Bison on Thursday.

Courtesy Photo

MINDEN, Neb. — McCook High’s girls wo na rematch of top five-rated Class C teams and took home another Southwest Conference cross country title Thursday.

Bison senior Sammy Rodewald placed third while outrunning fastest Minden Whippet Jesse Hurt by 41 seconds across the Whippets’ home course.

Freshman Emma Cappel and junior Sienna Dutton both joined Rodewald in the league’s top 10.

Even freshman Brecken Gale earned a medal as McCook garnered four of the top 14 places.

No other SWC team placed more than two among the top 15.

“We ran very well as a team on both the girls and boys sides,” coach Tom Sughroue commented. “It’s always great to finish as conference champion. But we are focused on the bigger meet next week: districts!”

McCook will run the Class C district meet at Ogallala next week with many SWC teams competing.

They’ll need more strong performances from Bison like senior Shawna Wilkinson, who finished 17th on Thursday (22:08) which edged two more Minden Whippets.

Minden had defeated the Bison during a recent meeting.

Sophomore Maryann Kastner-Macfee captured 29th place (24:02) at SWC and junior Abby Boner was 31st with a time of 24:11.

Freshman Jenna Wilkinson (40th/24:52), sophomore Jessie Pochop (51st/26:32), senior Sandra Hixon (52nd/27:58) and sophomore Elizabeth Aquirre (57th/32:04) are the other Bison SWC champion team members.

“We will need to run well again next week to finish in the top three teams,” Sughroue concluded. “If we are able to do that we could qualify both teams for the state meet.” Watch for more about districts in an upcoming Gazette.

Team scores: 1. McCook 26, 2. Minden 37, 3. Ainsworth 44, 4. Cozad 70, 5. Broken Bow 71, 6. Holdrege 116, 7. Valentine 117, 8. Gothenburg 127.

Top 15 SWC medalists: 1. L. Henning, OGA, 18.56; 2. K. Kerrigan, AINS, 19:24; 3. Sammy Rodewald, MC, 19:28; 4. J. Hurt, MIND, 20:09; 5. M. Applegate, COZ, 20:27; 6. Emma Cappel, MC, 20:37; 7. K. Burkholder, COZ, 20:44; 8. Sienna Dutton, MC, 21:10; 9. L. Henning, OGA, 21:22; 10. T. Houchin, MIND, 21:25; 11. L. Rehtus, MIND, 21:34; 12. M. Tobey, BOW, 21:35; 13. E. Kennedy, AINS, 21:41; 14. Brecken Gale, MC, 21:46; 15. P. Moody, AINS, 21:46.