Girls team picture courtesy of Mark Pavlik (L-R): Kaydence Jones, Delani Runnels, Taylor Pavlik, Amber Sucha, Nora Kucera, Aliyah Yunker, Taylen Stark, Allison Sucha, Maura Hoferer. Not pictured: Chloe Hanzlik.
O’NEILL – On Wednesday, April 23rd the N-V track team traveled to O’Neill for the St. Mary’s Invite. On a day where the weather was a bit windier & cooler than expected, the Cougar athletes still competed very well against a very tough line-up of track schools.
Nine teams competed in this track meet… Boyd County, CWC, Elgin Public/Pope John, Niobrara-Verdigre, Plainview, Riverside, Santee, St. Mary’s, and Stuart.
The N-V girls team finished runner-up falling just 4.5 points behind Riverside (113-117.5)! And the boys team finished in 7th place with Riverside boys also earning the championship trophy.
Some highlights of the meet included… Delani Runnels again won three individual gold medals en route to earning outstanding female athlete of the meet. This time she earned gold in 400M, 800M, and 1600M with Taylen Stark finishing silver medalist in 400M and 800M. The 4×400 relay team of Allison Sucha, Taylen Stark, Chloe Hanzlik, and Delani Runnels won gold. Taylor Pavlik earned gold in shot put. Other silver medalists were Allison Sucha (long jump) and Amber Sucha (high jump). On the boys side, Wyatt Shabram shined, earning three medals… silver in the 110M hurdles, 6th in high jump, and 4th in pole vault breaking his own school record set last week (9-06). Arlan Lammers was the other individual boy medalist with bronze in the high jump and 4th place in shot put. Two boys relay teams also earned medals.
We were small in numbers but mighty in heart for both teams. 10 different boys were medalists in the meet. And on the girls’ side, all 10 athletes competing earned medals! Individual medalists were…
GIRLS
Shot Put: Taylor Pavlik 1st place.
Discus: Chloe Hanzlik 3rd place.
High Jump: Amber Sucha 2nd place; Nora Kucera 4th place.
Long Jump: Allison Sucha 2nd place.
Triple Jump: Nora Kucera 6th place.
100M hurdles: Allison Sucha 3rd place, Nora Kucera 5th place, Chloe Hanzlik 6th place (season best).
300M hurdles: Allison Sucha 3rd place.
400M: Delani Runnels 1st place, Taylen Stark 2nd place. (both season bests)
800M: Delani Runnels 1st place, Taylen Stark 2nd place.
1600M: Delani Runnels 1st place.
4x800M Relay (Kaydence Jones, Maura Hoferer, Taylor Pavlik, Aliyah Yunker) – 4th place
4x100M Relay (Kaydence Jones, Maura Hoferer, Taylor Pavlik, Nora Kucera) – 6th place
4x400M Relay (Allison Sucha, Taylen Stark, Chloe Hanzlik, Delani Runnels) – 1st place
BOYS
Shot Put: Arlan Lammers 4th place.
High Jump: Arlan Lammers 3rd place, Wyatt Shabram 6th place.
Pole Vault: Wyatt Shabram 4th place (9-6) **school record**
110M hurdles: Wyatt Shabram 2nd place.
4x100M Relay (Connor Thomson, Isaac Pavlik, Jacob Motacek, Kellen Vesely) – 6th place
4x400M Relay (Bryan Coffman, Aiden Henry, Kasen Kazemba, Gage Vesely) – 6th place
Just missing out on medals…
4x800M Relay (Kasen Kazemba, Carter Nelson, Bryan Coffman, Kellen Vesely) – 7th place
Arlan Lammers – 7th place discus, 7th place 400M.
The next track meet will be the Summerland Invite on Tuesday, April 29th.
Story by Jeff Shabram
