Sidney grabs second, third at Alliance

BOYS

It looks like the warm weather agrees with many of the athletes on the Sidney boys track team.

Four Raiders including Logan Lewis, Lucas Rosenbaum, Nick Conger and Brendan Holly broke or tied career bests at the Western Conference Track Meet at Bulldog Stadium in Alliance on Saturday.

Overall the Sidney team finished third with 87 points. Scottsbluff took first place with 150 points while host Alliance scored 137. Gering (70), Mitchell (66) and Chadron (16) also competed.

“It was a good meet for us,” said head coach John Ganser. “We held up pretty well against some very strong programs.”

Among those who tied or set career marks, Logan Lewis may have had the most eye-popping performance. In the shot put (50- 5) he exceeded his best by more than two feet. His effort was good enough for a second-place finish.

“Logan looks like he’s really smoothing out his spin technique,” said Ganser.

In addition to Lewis’ career best three other Raiders tied a career mark. As he did at Gothenburg earlier this season, Rosenbaum cleared 13-feet in the pole vault to win the event. It’s the third time Rosenbaum has won the pole-vault competition this year.

“The wind helped us today,” Rosenbaum said. “It was at our back for the whole competition.”

In addition to equalling his career best, Rosenbaum wasn’t far from going even higher.

“He had some very nice attempts at 13-7,” said Ganser.

During the high jump competition, Conger and Holly sat quietly in the shade of a large tree during the early rounds. Both of them finally joined in when the bar reached 5-8.

Holly, the first to go, looked anything but comfortable to to start. He began with four or five false run-ups. After his last hesitation, however, he smiled and quickly jogged back to his starting point. Without even a pause, he turned around and headed again towards the bar. He cleared it easily.

Later Holly equalled his career best when he had no trouble clearing the bar at 5-10. He wasn’t able to match that leap at 6-feet and finished fourth.

Conger followed Holly and cleared the 5-8 mark easily as well. Conger’s troubles came at 6-feet when it took him three tries to make that mark. He nevertheless went on to clear 6-2 to equal his lifetime best and finsih second. He went out at 6-4.

“The 6-4 jump was there it was just a matter of timing,” Conger said. “I think maybe those extra tries at six feet may have tired my legs a little. I could have been more focused on those six-footers.”

Among other podium finishes Saturday Lewis edged out Chadron’s Jackson Dickerson to take third in the 100-meter dash. Lewis later took second in the 200-meters.

Sam Arterburn, Sidney’s only senior, was third in the 1,600-meter run.

The Raiders also took two third-place finishes in the relays. The team of Michael Muggli, Rosenbaum, Chance Anglin and Lewis ran the 4 x 400. Anglin was a late substitute for an injured Cole Stiles.

In the 4 x 800 Arterburn, Hayden Lienemann, Brenner Keane and Logan Uhler shaved more than 20-seconds off Sidney’s best time this season. Keane and Uhler are both freshmen.

Among the strong junior varsity finishers John Bramer was second in the 100-meters, Garrett Deer won the 400 and Domingo Blume won the 800. In the 1,600 Sidney took the top two spots with Jacob Schaub and Blume. Brian Rolls performed well in two field events winning the discus and placing third in the triple jump.

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GIRLS The Sidney girls track team put together another strong showing Saturday as it finished second in the Western Conference Track Meet at Bulldog Stadium in Alliance.

Scottsbluff outpointed all teams with 149.5 to Sidney’s 121. Gering edged out Mitchell 78 to 75 for third. Chadron (52) and host Alliance (44.5) rounded out the scoring.

“The depth of Scottsbluff is really what makes the difference,” said Raders head coach John Ganser. “They can pick up a lot of points with fourth and fifth-place finishes.”

With their usual strong peformances, Kali Robb, Morgan Linneman, Karissa Segelke and Alli Ehler were able to pile up big points in the individual events.

Additionally, the Raider girls were nearly perfect in the relay races. They won the 4 x 100 (Gabbie Addleman, Segelke, Robb and Morgan) and 4 x 400 (Abby Heller, Segelke, Ehler and Linneman) while finishing second to Gering in the 4 x 800 (Genessa Schilz, Preslie Allen, Madisen Stafford and Erin Lindeman).

Robb piled up her points with strong performances in three field events. She won the shot put with a distance (41-5) just six inches off her liefetime best. In the triple jump Robb missed out on a win by 2 1/2 inches. Her discus throw (123-feet) gave her second place. Robb also ran the third leg of the winning 4 x 100 relay.

In the high jump Abby Heller and Savanna Rosenbaum each cleared 4-8 to finish third and fourth respectively. The winning mark by Havannah Newens of Mitchell was just two inches higher.

As was the case at the Best of the West meet earlier in the week, Linneman was a strong force in the middle distance events. She won the 200 and 400-meter runs by nearly a second in each. She also ran the anchor leg in two relays.

“It’s not really the time I wanted but I’m pretty satisfied,” Linneman said of her 400-meter race. “The back side was pretty rough with the wind in our face. The first 100 really hit me.”

When it came to the endurance races Sidney turned to Ehler. She finished second in the 3,200-meters and fifth in the 1,600. Lindeman was right behind Ehler in the 1,600 with a sixth-place finish. Mia Hernandez was fourth in the 3,200.

Hurdles were the specialty of Segelke. She picked up second-place finishes in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles.

Among some of the strong performances by the junior varsity, Kate Brosnan finished second in the 100-meters. In the 200-meters Sidney had three top-five performers including Brosnan, Vanessa Riley and Jasmine Jallen.

Rounding out the running everts, Sarah Mahr finished second in the 400-meters and Jessica Webb was third in the 800-meters.

In the field events Jallen and Jami Flores were second and third respectively in the pole vault, Michaela Flick was third in the triple jump and Chaona Radtke finished second in the shot put.

“The junior varsity squads performed well, that bodes well for the future,” Ganser said.