Sidney cross country has eye on district, state meet

The Sidney High varsity cross country teams have had a phenomenal season.

Both the boys' and girls' varsity squads have won three meets. With the exception of the Liberty Bell Meet in Littleton, Colo., in early September, neither team has failed to place outside of the top three at any meet.

The Sidney teams swept the McCook meet by wide margins and then swept the Ogallala invite six days later. At their first home meet of the season – the Sidney Western Conference Invite – the boys' team took first place over Scottsbluff by two points, while the girls missed completing a third sweep of the season by two points to Gering.

The Sidney program is running incredibly strong right now. Currently, the boys are ranked second in the state in Class C, while the girls are ranked No. 1 statewide in that class.

The teams know they have one more regular-season meet left – Thursday afternoon's Sidney Invite. But make no mistake, the teams are focused on the upcoming district meet and have set their sights on being among the top contenders at the state meet.

The teams' leaders – particularly the senior boys – have set expectations high for themselves. Jachob Wiedeburg, who has two meet wins and four total top-five finishes under his belt this season, says he isn't quite satisfied with the way he's been running lately.

"The last few weeks (my running) hasn't been nearly as good as it should have been," Wiedeburg said. "I was really hoping to win conference (the Western Conference Invite held in Sidney) on Saturday, but things happened.

"I was glad to medal at UNK (the Kearney Invitational, where he came in 14th out of 208 male runners), but I really wish I would have gone a little bit faster and finished in the Top 10," he added. "But you can't work in the past and I'm just looking forward to districts and state and seeing what I can do."

Fellow senior Hayden Lieneman also feels like he hasn't quite performed on the level he's accustomed to, even though he has a pair of top-five finishes on the year himself.

"I haven't been running my best and hopefully I can change that heading into districts and the state meet," Lieneman said.

Meanwhile, Brody McKnight, who rounds out Sidney's excellent triumvirate of senior boys, believes he's on a slight uptick from earlier in the season. He finished fifth at the conference meet on Saturday.

"I feel like I'm slowly running better because, in the middle of the season, I started going a little bit slower compared to the start of the season," McKnight said. "I've been trying to get back down to my early-season times and I think I'll be how I should be."

McKnight says he and the team's motto all season has been "Be phenomenal or be forgotten" and that will be the mentality heading into the upcoming district meet. Both Wiedeburg and McKnight expressed their confidence that this season is the one for the program to shine at state, given the special legs on these teams.

"We've got a group of really talented and hard-working runners," McKnight said. "Three of us (the senior boys) are leaving after this season, so we want to make a statement and be remembered with a state title."

The girls' team has been equally impressive this fall. The girls have nearly matched the boys result for result and feature their own stars, namely junior Erin Lindeman and two standout freshman – Chantal Riggs and Charlie Brockhaus – who have been major pieces to the team's success so far.

Riggs, who didn't start the season on varsity, exploded onto the scene after her team-leading 54th place finish at the Liberty Bell Meet in Littleton. She earned a varsity spot for the next meet in McCook and never looked back. This year is her first time running competitively in cross country, but she has three Top 10 finishes this season. She has a whole new level of confidence heading into districts.

"I think I've been running pretty well, especially since I've never ran before this season," Riggs said.

Riggs doesn't want to think too much about what she's done this season and instead just look ahead with

a clear and simple approach.

"I like to race as hard as I can and see how far I can go with it," Riggs said.

For Sidney's other star freshman, running in the district meet at the varsity level is also a new experience. She's not letting that lower her personal goals for the district meet however.

"Just not overthinking anything," Brockhaus said

when asked what her mindset is as she prepares for districts. "I'm an emotional person so I just need to not get in my head and relax. I'm shooting for Top 20 at districts."

The district C-4 meet will take place on Thursday, Oct. 16 at West Winds Golf Course in Ogallala.