DISTRICT B-6 TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Heeren tops field in shot

OGALLALA – As two of the top Class B shot putters in Nebraska began their battle at the Class B-6 District Track and Field meet in Ogallala on Thursday – with their long-distance throws causing an ever-increasing frequency of ear-splitting roars – a sizable crowd began to gather around the throwing ring.

The loudest eruption was reserved for the final throw by Sidney High's Jake Heeren.

With Heeren routinely putting the shot well beyond his previous personal best (54 feet, 4 inches) he claimed the District title over Gothenburg's Tanner Borchardt with a school-record throw of 58-9.

Heeren's performance helped the Raiders boys' track and field team to a third-place finish with 70 points. McCook won the District title with 87 points with Scottsbluff taking the runner-up spot with 71. Ogallala (69) and Mitchell (65) were close behind in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Aside from Heeren's dramatic entrance into the state field, Sidney also has a District champion in Hayden Lienemann. He topped a strong twosome from Scottsbluff (Matthew Richardson and Matthew Barraza) to win the title in the 800 in a personal-best time of 1:58.95.

"I was hoping to break 1:59 and it turned out that I did," said Lienemann, a senior. "The school record is still 1:57.8 (Brett Bayne, 2010), so I'd like to shoot for that at state. Burke (Stadium in Omaha) has a great atmosphere to run in with all the cheering. That makes it a lot of fun."

Lienemann first broke the two-minute barrier at state last season.

The Raiders school-record holding 4x800-meter team of Lienemann, Jachob Wiedeburg, Brody McKnight and Logan Uhlir also claimed a District title as they topped Scottsbluff by just over a second.

"The goal was to run well today. We didn't necessarily want to blow it out of the water or anything," said McKnight, who ran the third leg. "With Hayden having the 800 coming up and Jake the mile, it was more important for us just to qualify."

The Raiders' 3,200-meter team, which earlier this season ran a time under 8:09, owns the state's fastest run in Class B this season.

Besides the District champions, Sidney qualified several others in individual events. Alex Linneman is headed to Omaha to compete in the 200 meters, Michael Banaszak qualified in the 400 and Wiedeburg made the grade in the mile. Also, Banaszak, Linneman, Hunter Secrest and Lienemann teamed up to finish second behind Alliance in the 4x400 relay.

Wiedeburg, after having already punched his ticket to Omaha in the long-distance relay, looked to break his personal-record time in the 1,600. When he crossed the line just behind Barraza, he succeeded in breaking his P.R.

"When I finished, I saw 4:35 on the board and got pretty excited," said Wiedeburg of the big scoreboard visible to runners from the finish line. "I wanted to get 4:35 and get in the top two and it looks like I did both.

"I saw Matthew peek back a few times, which he does, and I got the feeling he had a little more in him. I tried to give him a run for his money as best I could and I think I did OK. He's very tough," Wiedeburg added.

Though Wiedeburg was given a hand-held time of 4:35 and change, the official time was 4:36.30.

The 400-meter relay squad with Derek Robb, Banaszak, Linneman and Chance Anglin ran a strong fourth and qualified for state based on time. The difference between the top four was less than a half second.

As for the dramatics in the shot put ring, even head coach John Ganser was impressed.

"That shot put was unreal. Jake was throwing over 56 feet routinely whether it was in warm up or competition," he said. "To shatter the record the way he did is really incredible and he did it several times."

Heeren broke the old school record of 56-3 set by Chris Hadden in 2001.

"This week I knew Tanner was going to come into Districts thinking he had nothing to lose," said Heeren of the reigning Class B state champion. "During practice this week, I was doing a lot of form and not throwing much – maybe six or seven throws a day.

"On my first throw I wasn't trying to break any records, I just wanted to hit the automatic qualifying mark to go to state and I did that. From there I just kept climbing," Heeren said.

With Heeren and Borchardt tied with throws of 57-10, Heeren already had the title in his pocket when he stepped up for his final throw (based on a better second-best throw). Leaving nothing behind, Heeren broke his own short-lived school record on his final effort.

The Raiders will begin their state championship run at Burke Stadium in Omaha on Friday, May 22 at 8 a.m. MDT. The championships are Saturday, also beginning at 8 a.m. MDT.

DISTRICT B-6 RESULTS

At Ogallala High School

BOYS – TEAM SCORES

1. McCook, 87; 2. Scottsbluff, 71; 3. Sidney, 70; 4. Ogallala, 69; 5. Mitchell, 65; 6. Alliance, 58; 7. Gothenburg, 49; 8. Chadron, 37; 9. Gering, 20; 10. Valentine, 1.

100 Meters

1. Jackson Dickerson, Chadron, 10.94; 2. Joe Schlager, McCook, 11.23; 3. Christian Perez, Mitchell, 11.39; 4. Brandon Raffaeli, Ogallala, 11.42; 5. Spencer Jenkins, Ogallala, 11.43; 6. John Bramer, Sidney, 11.48.

200 Meters

1. Christian Perez, Mitchell, 22.58; 2. Alex Linneman, Sidney, 22.69; 3. Abe Hernandez, Mitchell, 23.04; 4. Spencer Jenkins, Ogallala, 23.05; 5. Sam Smith, McCook, 23.07; 6. Ethan Wilcox, McCook, 24.10.

400 Meters

1. Brody Brennan, Alliance, 50.39; 2. Abe Hernandez, Mitchell, 51.00; 3. Michael Banaszak, Sidney, 51.46; 4. Cody Robinson, Alliance, 51.54; 5. Brendan Brehmer, Alliance, 54.04; 6. Coby Haas, Sidney, 54.89.

800 Meters

1. Hayden Lienemann, Sidney, 1:58.95; 2. Matthew Richardson, Scottsbluff, 1:59.71; 3. Matthew Barraza, Scottsbluff, 2:01.32; 4. Nolan Priebe, McCook, 2:05.34; 5. Brody McKnight, Sidney, 2:07.22; 6. Collin Maag, Scottsbluff, 2:07.39.

1,600 Meters

1. Matthew Barraza, Scottsbluff, 4:33.74; 2. Jachob Wiedeburg, Sidney, 4:36.30; 3. Collin Hahn, Gothenburg, 4:40.14; 4. Shane Burkey, Scottsbluff, 4:41.20; 5. Josh Hergenreder, Scottsbluff, 4:45.61; 6. Chase Watson, Mitchell, 4:45.64.

3,200 Meters

1. Shane Burkey, Scottsbluff, 10:18.57; 2. Josh Hergenreder, Scottsbluff, 10:22.86; 3. Jaco Henning, Ogallala, 10:31.56; 4. Taye Collicott, McCook, 10:33.24; 5. Edward Grentz, Mitchell, 10:44.72; 6. Noah Hergenreder, Scottsbluff, 11:00.00.

110-Meter Hurdles

1. Drew Gilliland, Mitchell, 14.80; 2. Trenton Zink, Ogallala, 15.28; 3. Logan Hammond, Ogallala, 15.62; 4. Marcus Fernandez, Chadron, 15.80; 5. Matthew Holloway, Scottsbluff, 15.89; 6. Zach Schlager, McCook, 16.02.

300-Meter Hurdles

1. Drew Gilliland, Mitchell, 39.13; 2. Trenton Zink, Ogallala, 40.83; 3. Jeff Schmidt, Gering, 40.84; 4. Brendan Brehmer, Alliance, 41.70; 5. Jacob Clark, Gothenburg, 42.10; 6. Zach Schlager, McCook, 42.44.

4x100 Relay

1. Mitchell, 43.25; 2. McCook, 43.37; 3. Ogallala, 43.76; 4. Sidney (Derek Robb, Michael Banaszak, Alex Linneman, Chance Anglin), 43.84; 5. Alliance, 44.60; 6. Chadron, 44.90.

4x400 Relay

1. Alliance, 3:25.69; 2. Sidney (Michael Banaszak, Alex Linneman, Hunter Secrest, Hayden Lienemann), 3:28.43; 3. Gering, 3:32.58; 4. Ogallala, 3:32.80; 5. McCook, 3:38.69; 6. Valentine, 3:50.30.

4x800 Relay

1. Sidney (Jachob Wiedeburg, Logan Uhlir, Brody McKnight, Hayden Lienemann), 8:13.47; 2. Scottsbluff, 8:14.69; 3. McCook, 8:30.21; 4. Gering, 8:38.33; 5. Ogallala, 8:58.54; 6. Gothenburg, 9:26.55.

Shot Put

1. Jake Heeren, Sidney, 58-9; 2. Tanner Borchardt, Gothenburg, 57-10; 3. Dalton Goodenberger, McCook, 50-1; 4. Isaac De Los Santos, Scottsbluff, 49-8.5; 5. Tanner Kickland, Chadron, 46-11; 6. Shane Smith, Scottsbluff, 45-3.

Discus

1. Tanner Borchardt, Gothenburg, 172-3; 2. Cole Beckius, Ogallala, 170-11; 3. Kyle Krantz, Alliance, 149-4; 4. Esai Hernandez, Gering, 146-11; 5. Colby Eberspecher, Mitchell, 140-11; 6. Alex Fritzler, Chadron, 136-7.

High Jump

1. Jakob Estrada, Ogallala, 6-5.5; 2. Dylan France, Gothenburg, 6-3; 3. Seth Eggleston, Gothenburg, 6-1; 4. Trevor Ridenour, Alliance, 6-1; 5. Greg Gaston, McCook, 5-11; 6. Bryce Borer, Ogallala, 5-11.

Pole Vault

1. Spencer Powell, McCook, 15-6; 2. Mitchell Reitz, McCook, 14-1; 3. Bryan Martinez, Gothenburg, 12-11; 4. Josh Ellis, Alliance, 12-11; 5. Derek Robb, Sidney, 12-11; 6. Caleb Rice, Gothenburg, 12-11.

Long Jump

1. Jackson Dickerson, Chadron, 22-2; 2. Klayton Nordeen, Alliance, 21-9.25; 3. Bryce Lyons, McCook, 21-4.75; 4. Kody Fletcher, Alliance, 20-11.5; 5. Brian Johnston, Scottsbluff, 20-1; 6. Brendinh Sayaloune, Chadron, 19-8.5.

Triple Jump

1. Darius Williams, McCook, 43-9.75; 2. Marcus Fernandez, Chadron, 42-8.75; 3. Bryce Lyons, McCook, 42-7.75; 4. Brian Johnston, Scottsbluff, 42-0.25; 5. Peyton Stagemeyer, McCook, 41-5.25; 6. Jordan Lauer, Gothenburg, 40-11.