The Ord High School Cross Country teams competed in the Central City Invitational this past Thursday and came away with a sixth-place finish in the boys race. The Chants did not field enough girls to score as a team. “This was our best meet of the season”, Coach Derry Trampe noted. “Every kid on our team ran the best time of their career at this meet. It was a very competitive meet and our kids got out fast and were still able to maintain pace throughout the race. It was great to see us have the kind of day that we did because we worked hard in practice all week. I was pleased with the way we performed this week. We have a lot of good things yet to come this year.”
In a meet that features some of the top Class B and C teams in the state the Chanticleer boys score 124 points to finish in 6th place. Lexington ran away with the team title with a low team score of 14. Northwest and Aurora tied for second place with 68 points but Northwest was awarded second based on the fifth man tie breaker. Minden was fourth with 77 points while Broken Bow was fifth with 80 points. Rounding out the team scoring were: Schuyler (137), Nebraska Christian (144), Elkhorn Valley (149), Central City (150), Grand Island CC (173), Exeter/Milligan-Friend (224), Madison (249), and Fullerton, Riverside, and Heartland Lutheran did not field enough runners to score as a team.
Aurora ran away with the team title in the girls race with a low score of 35 points. Nebraska Christian was a distant second with 70 points. Broken Bow and Elkhorn Valley finished 3rd and 4th respectively with 84 and 87 points. Rounding out the team scoring were: Minden (89), Northwest (90), Lexington (100), Schuyler (111), Central City (137), Fullerton (150), Madison (187), and Ord, Grand Island CC, Exter/Milligan-Friend, Riverside, and Heartland Lutheran did not field enough runners to score as a team.
Garret Severance brough home the lone medal for the Chanticleer boys when he finished 14th place in a time of 17:23. Elijah Pollard was just out of the medals as he finished in 19th place with a time of 17:35. Brody Blair continued his improvement on the season when he finished in 53rd place in a time of 18:59 with Grady Moudry and Brodie Klimek right behind him in 56th and 60th place respectively. Moudry covered the 5,000-meter course in 19:04 while Klimek finished in a time of 19:18. Gavin Whited was the sixth runner for the team, and he finished in 75th place in a time of 19:56. Braden Bruha was right behind Whited in 77th place with a personal best time of 20:04. Skyler also turned in a personal best performance when he placed 90th in the 135 person field in a time of 20:37. “Overall we had a great day”, Trampe said. “All of our guys had personal best times at this meet and really stepped up and competed. Now we just need to close the gap between our top runners and our next four runners. If we can get that gap to a minute or minute and a half, we have a chance to make some great things happen at conference, districts, and state.”
While the girls did not bring home any medals, they all ran personal best times in this meet. Izzy Jeffres led the way for the team with a 38th place finish in the field of 96 runners. Jeffres covered the course in a time of 23:21. Avery Bruha was right behind her in 39th place in 23:23. Elisabeth Bengston finished in 90th place in a time of 31:22. “I am pleased to see the improvement our girls are making every week”, Trampe stated. “We are getting stronger and more consistent and that will pay off for us by the end of the season.”
The junior high runners had one medal winner in this meet when Finn Reilly 11th in the field of 153 runners to bring home a medal. Reilly covered the 3,000-meter course in a time of 10:30. This is the longest race of the season for the junior high team. Jaxson Edghill covered the course in 11:52 to finish in 55th place. Kyptan Scheideler was 61st in 11:56 and Jacob Medina was 64th in 11:59. James Piskorski finished in 76th place in a time of 12:21 and Leo Wolf was 94th in 12:52. Dakota Rogers was 106th with a time of 13:26. As a team the junior high boys finished in 11th place with 162 points. Peyton Melnick was the lone runner for the girls in the junior high race and finished 31st in a time of 13:52.