Addison Blaha Sets School Record in Pole Vault
The Ord High School track and field teams competed in the Class C state track and field meet on Friday and Saturday, May 22 and 23 in Omaha. The girls finished in a tie for 19th place with 10 points while the boys tied for 34th with 5 points. “I felt good about the way our kids competed at the state meet”, Coach Derry Trampe stated. “We had a couple of personal best performances, two medal winners, and a new school record. If we did not have a personal best performance, we would be close to our best. I think we did a great job of competing and representing our school and community.” Kearney Catholic won the girls team title with 79 points while Bishop Neumann was a distant second with 57 points. Chase County won the boys team title with 55.33 points while Battle Creek was second with 37.33 points. Rounding out the top 10 for the girls were West Holt (45), Hartington Cedar Catholic (34), Lincoln Lutheran (33), Elm Creek (33), Crofton (30), Chase County (29), Grand Island CC (28), and St. Paul (28). Rounding out the top ten for the boys were Doniphan-Trumbull (36), Lincoln Lutheran (35), North Platte St. Pat’s (34), Alma (32), Grand Island CC (32), Hartington Cedar Catholic (26), Wakefield (23), and Hershey (21).
Trinity claimed the high jump title for the second straight. Chatfield cleared 5’ 3” on her first attempt to earn the title. “It is hard to repeat as a champion at state because there is a lot of pressure on you”, Coach Trampe said. “She went out and had fun competing and didn’t let the pressure bother her. I know she would have liked to have jumped higher, but the gold medal is the important thing at the state meet.” Beau Wells brought home the second medal of his career in the pole vault. Wells tied his season and personal best jump of 15’ 0” to bring home a fourth-place medal. “Beau jumped a foot higher than last year and finished a place lower than last year. It was a loaded field this year and I am proud of the way he competed”, Coach Trampe noted.
In addition to the medal winners, the Chants had four other athletes competing in five events at the meet. All of them had quality performances that earned them a personal best effort or a near personal best effort. Addi Blaha finished 10th in the pole vault with a jump of 10’ 6”. Her jump established a new school record. She broke the old record of 10 feet that she shared with Morgan Alexander. Leah Zangger finished in 13th place in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Zangger ran a preliminary time of 12.62 and missed the finals by less than 3/10ths of a second. She also placed 13th in the 200 with a time of 26.24 and missed the finals by .34 seconds. Ellie Boettcher had a preliminary toss of 110’ 11” and did not advance to the finals. However, her throw was good enough to finish 15th in the field of 24 competitors. Avery Bruha ran a personal best time by over 13 seconds and finished 21st in the 3200-meter run. Avery’s time of 12:44.13 showed a nearly 30 second improvement from her best time 2 weeks earlier in the season. “I was very proud of the way all of our kids competed at the state meet”, Trampe commented. “We had a few kids that made their first trip to the meet and some people who had been there before, but they did not let it bother them and they went out and competed hard in one of the strongest fields I have seen at the state meet. It has been a pleasure to coach these teams this year.”