Hershey Invite brings out the best from area athletes
NORTH PLATTE - The Hershey Track Meet held at North Platte St. Patricks High School on March 27 brought out a slew of local talent. There was no team score kept at this meet, but plenty of individual accomplishments.
Mullen who was competing in their first track meet of the year took home several golds on both the boy’s and girl’s side.
The strong event for the Bronco girls was their distance running. Callie Coble won both the mile with a time of 6:05.825 and the two-mile with a time of 12:43.254.
Two seniors for Mullen, Brooke McCully, and Samantha Moore also took home a first-place medal in the running events. In the 400 meter dash, McCully edged out Jocelyn Cheek of Maxwell in a time of 1:08.193, and in the 100 meter hurdles, Samantha Moore glided to first with a time of 16.066, over two seconds in front of the next finisher.
In the 4x800 meter relay, the only relay the Broncos fielded, they showed how fast they are in the distance. The team of McCully, Coble, Taylor Svoboda, and French clocked an 11:13.497. The next fastest time was an 11:44.949 run by Hershey.
“We only had six girls compete and one of those was injured and only did a couple of events,” Mullen Coach Jennifer Moore said. “I was so pleased with our 4 x 800! The first meet is always a bit stressful as you don’t know how your workouts have been stacking up. But it looks like our workouts have been doing the job. I feel that we will be well-rounded in all the events and I know that sounds kind of dumb with only seven girls out for track, but we will do pretty well as a team with that few of girls.”
The Mullen boys had three first-place finishes on the day. The first one came from Jaden Emerson in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.895
Clayton Moore took gold in both the 300 meter hurdles and the high jump in his first-ever high school track meet. He won the 300 meter hurdles in a time of 43.781 and the high jump with a jump of 6’-2”.
“I felt like the boys competed super hard and had some really good marks,” Jennifer Moore said. “Jaden Emerson surprised himself in the 200. I feel that he will only keep getting stronger and faster. Clayton Moore’s HJ was a great starting point at 6’2 as well.”
The Anselmo-Merna girls track team had two first play finishes on the day. They came in the 4x400 meter relay and in the triple jump by Carlee Bartak.
Bartak ended the triple jump way out in front of the rest of the field with a mark of 31’-11”. The second closest jump of 30’10” was recorded by Ava Pandorf of South Loup.
The 4x400 meter relay team of Kaitlyn Jacquot, Bartak, Koral Schmidt, and Hadlee Safranek finished in 4:27.450. That was nine seconds in front of South Loup in a time of 4:38.62.
“I thought we competed pretty well,” A-M Girls Coach Jason Reed said. “We had some placing in almost every event we were entered in which was nice to see. There weren’t team scores at the meet, but I imagine if there was we would have been in the hunt.”
The Coyote boys didn’t take home any first-place finishes but did have three medalists. They were Wyat Lambertson who was sixth in 200 meter dash and the long jump, and Ethan Chandler who was sixth in the triple jump.
Finishing with two first-place performances in the 200 meter dash and the 4x100 meter relay was the South Loup girls track team. Halie Recoy won the 200 meter dash in a time of 28.565 for the Bobcats, and the 4x100 team of Bryn Schwarz, Recoy, Delaynie Laible, and Mya Weverka finished in a time of 55.290.
South Loup girls track coach Mike Weverka was pleased to see his team place in every single event they entered in at Hershey, something that didn’t happen the prior week.
“I was really excited with how we did,” Mike Weverka said. “We went from not scoring a point in the field events, to scoring a point in every event we ran. I told the girls last week that we are too good of a team to not score in the field events, and our girls were able to step up and answer the call this week.”
The South Loup boys track team had won two relays and the 110 meter hurdles.
It was Drew Vickers who took home first for the Bobcats in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 43.781. The 4x400 team of Cache Gracey, Rio Remund, Cooper Atkins, and Brett Halstead ran a 3:53.042, and the 4x800 team of Remund, Logan Recoy, Silas Cool, and Gracey ran a 9:22.461 for first.
The final team from the area competing at the Hershey Invite was Sandhills-Thedford. They had three athletes finish in first-place.
The first of the three came on the girls side with freshman Dayle Haake. She ran a 52.558 to finish with gold in the 300 meter hurdles.
Both Seth Scranton and Matt Dailey won by less than a second to finish first in their respective events for the Knight boys. In the 100 meter dash, Scranton was first in a time of 11.689, and in the 800 meter run Dailey won in four-tenths of a second clocking a 2:14.134.
Scranton also was the Triple Jump champ. He jumped 40-0 1/2” to lead a group of four Knights medalist in the event.
“For a lot of the kids this was their first meet with prom last week,” S-T Coach Josh Deines said. “To come out the first true meet of the year and put up some of the marks and times that they did makes me really happy.”
All the area team that competed at the Hershey Invite are back in action at the Mullen Invite in Arnold on April 1. Check the Custer County Chief Sports on our website for complete stats from the Hershey Invite.