Red Raider cross country teams run their way to strong showings at first meet of season in Gering

The Sidney cross country teams looked very promising in their first meet of the season, Friday afternoon at Monument Shadows Golf Course in Gering.

As a team, the varsity boys came in second overall out of 14 teams with a score of 35. The varsity girls finished third out of a field of eight teams, registering a score of 48--just two points behind second-place Gering.

Head coach Tony Neels said he was impressed with his teams' results on the afternoon. 

"Overall I was very pleased with how we ran today," Neels said. "The kids were all competing hard and our times were much better than they were on this course a year ago. We obviously still have work to and must continue to get better but I like the direction we are headed."

Individually, senior Jachob Wiedeburg came in fourth overall out of 81 runners. He led the Sidney boys' team in the 5K race with a time of 17:33, just one second behind third place Matt Richardson of Scottsbluff. Senior Hayden Lienemann crossed the finish line just sixteen seconds after his Sidney teammate and placed seventh.

Senior Brody McKnight finished 11th in the individual standings with a run of 18:10. Sophomore Ryan Aurich completed his run with a time of 18:26 while junior Brenner Keane with a 19:14. Junior Logan Uhlir came in 35th in the boys' field with a time of 19:30.

Sidney's top three boys runners more than held their own in a tough field of competition on Friday. 

"There were a lot of good teams there and we were able to put three runners in the top 11, which was really encouraging," Neels said. 

Scottsbluff runners took the top three spots in the boys' run and six of the top 11 spots, while Mitchell placed two of its runners in the top 11.

In the girls' field, junior Presley Allen paced the Sidney team with a run of 21:59 that put her in 15th place out of 62 runners. 

The rest of the team followed almost in consecutive order. Freshman Charlie Brockhaus finished 16th only 11 seconds behind Allen. Junior Erin Lindeman came in 18th only 12 seconds behind Brockhaus, while juniors Abby Heller and Mia Fernandez posted the same time of 22:24 for 19th and 20th place respectively. 

In the girls' case however, individual placement was deceptive. All of the varsity girl runners posted excellent times, which is the most telling aspect of a runner's performance. 

"Although we didn't place anyone [of the girls] in the top 10, we still ran very well," Neels said. "Those top 10 times were extremely fast for this time of year. All of the girls ran significantly faster 5K times than a week ago at our intrasquad meet and competed hard."

The Sidney varsity teams will travel to Littleton, Colo. for their second meet of the season on Friday.