The Ord High School cross country teams competed in the Central City relays on Thursday, September 15 and came away with strong performances. The Chant girls did not have enough runners competing to score as a team and the boys finished 5th in the 14-team field. “Overall, I thought we had a very good day”, Coach Derry Trampe stated. “We had some of our best times of the season and ran well in a competitive field of runners. There are some very good teams and individuals at this meet, and I am very pleased with he way we performed.” The Chanticleer boys scored 97 points to earn their 5th place finish. Lexington ran away with the meet by scoring a perfect 10 in the meet. Northwest was a distant second with 51 points. Nebraska Christian was third with 67 points and Minden was right behind them in fourth with 70 points. Rounding out the team scoring were: Aurora (98), Schuyler (122), Grand Island CC (145), St. Paul (176), Madison (196), Riverside (206), and Fullerton, Central City, and Heartland Lutheran did not field enough runners to score as a team.
Lexington won the girls portion of the meet as well by scoring 33 points to just edge out Aurora (42). Nebraska Christian finished third with 58 points and Minden was fourth with 66 points. Rounding out the team scoring were: Schuyler (70), Northwest (72), Fullerton (96), Madison (173), and Central City, Riverside, Heartland Lutheran, Grand Island CC, St. Paul, Ord, and Central Valley did not field enough runners to score as a team.
Masaki Arisawa was the top finisher for the boys’ team as he brought home a medal from the meet by finishing 12th in a season-best time of 17:32. “Masaki continues to improve every week”, Coach Trampe said. “He is a very competitive runner and the bigger the race, the faster he runs.” Owen Lane turned in his best performance of the season as well and finished 19th in the field of 127 runners. Lane also had a season best time of 18:07 over the 5,000-meter course. “Owen had a tough race last week but came back this week and ran extremely well”, Trampe said. “He has been a great addition to our team this year not only because of his running ability but also for his leadership with the team.” Rounding out the scoring runners for the team were Garret Severance and Elijah Pollard. Severance and Pollard finished 38th and 39th respectively in times of 18:50 and 18:51. Both times were season best times for them. “Garret and Elijah continue to get better every week”, Trampe stated. “I have been very pleased with their progress and how they are working in practice. If they continue to work like we have been, they can do some great things by the end of the season.” Serving as pushers for the team were Grady Moudry and Brodie Klimek. Moudry finished in 47th place in a time of 19:22 and Klimek was 55th in a season best time of 19:46. “Grady and Brodie are very consistent performers, and they continue to bring their times down”, the coach said. “If we can get both below 19 minutes this season, we will have a very strong team as we head into the final part of the season. I am really excited to see how we progress.” Also competing in the meet were Hayden Kluthe (62nd in 20:12), Issac VanLeer (77th in 21:14), Gage Sintek (93rd in 22:42), Braden Bruha (110th in 24:00), and Skylar Probst (113th in 24:38). “Hayden, Isaac, and Gage ran their best times of the season at this meet”, Trampe noted. “All three of them are continuing to improve on a weekly basis which gives us a lot of depth in case someone has a bad meet. I am excited about how much these guys have improved this year and look forward to seeing how much better they get as we finish out the season. Braden and Skyler both ran well but they have had better times this year. We just need to get them to be consistent performers in our meets.”
Izzy Jeffres was the top finisher for the girls’ team as she placed 61st in a time of 26:41. This was her best time of the season. “Izzy is trying to work through some pain in her hips”, Coach Trampe stated. “She looks very good in the early portion of the race but the injury she is working with just makes it hard for her to hold that pace for the entire race. As she gets healthy, I look for her times to drop a lot.” Koryn Klein finished in 82nd place in a time of 30:50 this week. Like Izzy, she is also trying to work through some pain in her hips and back. “Koryn is a tough kid and works through a lot of discomfort. I am pleased with what she can do and with the toughness she shows”, Trampe said. Elisabeth Bengston recorded her best time of the season as she finished in 85th place in a time of 32:09. “Like our other girls, Elisabeth is dealing with some tendonitis in her knees”, Trampe commented. “Our girls are a little sore right now so we will limit the work they do this next couple of weeks to see if we can get them healed up enough for the conference and district meets. I like the way we are competing, and I was pleased with the way Elisabeth ran the last two miles of this race. She caught several girls and competed hard to the end.”
The junior high girls brought home two medals from the meet again this week as Avery Bruha and Allison Wheeler finished 6th and 12th respectively to earn a medal. This was in a field of over 100 participants. Bruha covered the 3,000-meter course in a tie of 12:05 while Wheeler finished in 12:18. Sophia Zangger finished in 82nd place in a time of 16:26. In the boys race the junior high boys finished 15th out of 17 scoring teams with 249 points. In a race that had nearly 160 runners, Gavin Whited was the top finisher for Ord with a 44th place finish in a time of 11:33. Conner Krcilek was 87th in 12:44, Kyptan Scheideler was 108th in 13:11, Leo Wolf was 121st in 14:06, and Jacob Medina was 132nd in 14:44. “I am really happy with the way our junior high kids are competing”, Coach Trampe said. “There are some areas where I think we can improve but we are running hard throughout the race, and it is nice to see them work with each other in practice. These young runners will be great runners for us when they are in high school.”