Sidney cross country sweeps McCook Invite

The Sidney High boys' and girls' cross country teams both placed first at the McCook Invite meet on Friday afternoon at Heritage Hills Golf Course. It was the first win of the season for either team.

The boys finished with a team score of 24. The girls registered a 35.

Sidney seniors Jachob Wiedeburg and Hayden Lieneman came in first and second overall out of 72 runners with times of 18:02 and 18:30, respectively. Brody McKnight came in fourth at 18:54. Junior Jacob Schaub placed 13th overall with a 19:41, while sophomores Ryan Aurich and Logan Uhlir finished 18th and 20th with a 20:26 and 20:40, respectively.

Heritage Hills presented a difficult course with a lot of hills, but warm temperatures were also a factor.

"We aren't used to running in the heat like that this year, given the weather we've had the last few weeks," said head coach Tony Neels. "It affected everyone on the course – that was very apparent. I give credit to our kids. They ran better than most in those conditions and that is a testament to all the hard work and the conditioning they developed over the summer months."

Neels added that the competitiveness of both teams was inspiring to watch.

"The boys' team ran exceptionally well I thought," Neels said. "We had some real battles going on during that race and we won them all. I like the fight these guys show when someone tries to pass them or tries to pull away. We don't give anything to anyone and that's what we need to do moving forward."

On the girls side, freshman Charlie Brockhaus led the team with a time of 23:04 and an 8th-place finish overall among 57 runners. Junior Abby Heller's 23:15 was good for 10th, freshman Chantal Riggs came in 11th at 23:17 and junior Erin Lindeman placed 12th with a time of 23:21.

Junior Preslie Allen and senior Maddie Stafford finished 14th and 17th overall, respectively, with times of 23:48 and 24:38.

Neels says the girls really pushed themselves to earn their first-place finish.

"The girls also showed some mental toughness today," Neels said. "We gained multiple points in the last 400 meters of that race and that's what did it for us. We were beat with a 1,000 meters to go, but they didn't give up. They didn't quit, and because of that, we were able to come out on top."

The Red Raiders travel to Ogallala for their next meet on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 4 p.m.