Lions Club Track Invitational (at Republic County) Full Results - click here

Plenty of track and field competition was to be had on Tuesday at Republic County as they hosted their annual Lion's Club Invitational and several area teams were in action. 

The meet is broken into the Upper and Lower division based on classification for schools and area teams competed in both divisions at the meet. The top area team performance in the Upper division was earned by the Nemaha Central boys who finished second place by a half point just behind Beloit. Valley Heights boys finished fourth, while Washington County took fifth and Marysville sixth out of 10 boy’s teams in action. On the girls side for the Upper division the lady Thunder of Nemaha Central earned third place only nine points out of first which was captured by Beloit. Valley Heights girls like the boys took fourth, while Marysville finish fifth and Washington County eighth out of nine teams. 

The Lower division competition was full of Twin Valley League schools and the Axtell girls posted the best team performance finishing first place by 21 points out of eight schools. Clifton-Clyde and Hanover tied for second place, while Linn finished fourth and Blue Valley-Randolph fifth. In the boys competition Hanover finished second as a team just one point behind Rock Hills, while Clifton-Clyde was fourth, Blue Valley-Randolph fifth, Axtell sixth and Linn tied for seventh. 

Hanover led the day with the most individual event wins claiming 11 between the boys and girls competitors. On the boys side the Wildcat 4x400 and 4x800 meter relay teams posted times of 3:49.14 and 9:09.26 to take the gold, while Michael Jueneman won the 300 meter hurdles on the track with a time of 43.27. Pete Peters brought home a pair of first place finishes winning the 400 meter dash (54.70) and high jump (6'00), while Cade Cohorst leapt to first in the long jump (18'06) and Daiken Stallbaumer won the triple jump (41'00). Lady Wildcats also won two of the three relays on the day posting times of 4:19.86 and 10:59.48 to win the 4x400 and 4x800 meter relays, while Claire Zarybnicky took first in the 400 (1:03.64) and 800 (2:30.22) meter run. 

Ten first place finishes highlighted things for Valley Heights with Kayla Smith once again helping spear head the Mustangs performances as she won three events. Smith sprinted to the win the 100 meter dash (13.10) and leapt to the win in the long jump (17'02) and triple jump (37'09.50). Sam Vermetten continued her strong performances this track season as she won both the 800 and 1600 meter runs with times of 2:27.40 and 5:28.50, while Skyler Saunders jumped to the mark of 5'06 to win the high jump. Valley Heights boys were led by Adrian Pishny who won the 1600 and 3200 meter runs notching times of 5:03.84 and 10:32.59, while the boys won the 4x800 meter relay (8:52.33) and Alex Hardin earned the first in the 800 meter run (2:10.83). 

Nemaha Central Thunder came up plenty more top track and field performances as eight first place finishes were earned. Jacob Koelzer sprinted his way to times of 11.50 and 23.64 to win the 100 and 200 meter dashes, while also posting a leap of 20'06 to take first in the long jump. Zach Buessing continued to beat out the competition in the hurdles sweeping the 110 and 300 meter hurdles with times of 16.36 and 43.15. Thunder boys also earned first place in the 4x100 meter relay (44.37). Lady Thunder were led on the day by Kaley Dalinghaus and Allison Rottinghaus who took first place in the shot put (42'10) and 200 meter dash (28.10). 

Georgia Hatesohl led Blue Valley-Randolph on the winning three events taking the 200 meter dash (27.58) and sweeping the hurdles 100 (16.04) and 300 meters (50.25). Katie Hutson also won the girls 1600 meter run (6:00.33) and Michael Wright posted the best throw to win the boys discus (132'10). 

Both Washington County and Linn had a quartet of first place finishes on the day at Republic County. Tigers were led by Levi Gauby who won the pole vault (13'06) and triple jump (42'09), while Jae Eaton and Dawson Miller each won the shot put (50'08.25) and javelin (169'04), respectively. 

Linn were led by the girls as the 4x100 meter relay (53.64) took first, while Shelby Ohlde, Brooke Diederich and Hunter York each won an event. Ohlde won the high jump (5'06), while Diederich took first in the long jump (16'04.50) and York finished first in the discus (101'02). 

Axtell Eagle girls on their way to first place as a team were led by a trio of first place individual performances. Mariah Deters won the 100 meter dash (13.41), while Olivia Kuckelman took first in the 3200 meter run (12:52.76) and Anna Buessing won the javelin (116'04). 

Avery Williams and Grace Stohs took first in the 300 meter hurdles (51.24) and pole vault (11'06) for Marysville to post the best performances for the Bulldogs. 

Clifton-Clyde was led by Riley Knox won the girls pole vault (7'00) to lead the Eagles performances.