Eagle Harriers Compete At West Holt Invite

    Last Friday, the O’Neill Eagles competed at the West Holt Invitational.  Sixty-two girls and 64 boys competed in the invite.

The O’Neill Lady Eagles grabbed the team title with 38 points.  Earning top 10 honors were Tasha Lechtenberg fourth, Alejandra Vergara sixth and Brandi Walters 10th.  Lizzie Price who placed 19th, was the final varsity runner to help score the 38 points.  Running in the fifth spot for the varsity team was Catrina Spangler 35th and in the sixth spot was Sarah Pribil 42nd.  In the junior varsity Miranda Pribil placed 48th, Nicole Babutzke 57th and Amber De Groot 60th.

The O’Neill Boys team placed fourth with 62 points.  Leading the Eagles was Kyle Pardun 11th and Humberto  Costilla 15th, which earned them a medal.  Other varsity runners were Nate Gotschall 18th, Shea Lueninghoener 20th, Joseph Gillham 22nd and Blake Walters 28th.  The reserve runners were Kyle Fowler 33rd, Devan Davidson 39th, Cody Belzer 42nd, Jessie Albarran 49th, Thomas Higgins 53rd, Logan Spencer 54th, Dylan Belik 55th and Miguel Ochoa 62nd.

“It was a smaller meet than what we have ran all year but the top 25 in each group were really competitive.  We are only one week away from conference and two weeks from districts.  I see us performing our best then,” said Coach Hilker.

In the junior high race the following girl athletes medaled:  Riley Sibbel fifth, Ashley Everitt seventh and Paula Zak ninth.  Jayde Rosenkrans placed 11th, Kaylee Harvey 12th, Abby Gillham 13th, Veronica Ross 14th and Tejlor Strope 21st.  In the junior high boys division Casey Vandersnick placed eighth and Cody Watson 10th which gave them individual medals.  Other O’Neill Eagles were Jordan Ross 12th, Deven Jurgensmeier 14th, Zeb O’Brien 16th, Miles Stagemeyer 18th and James Walton 19th.

“We have some really good young talent.  It was a lot of fun to coach the junior high students.  They show the kind of strength and toughness the O’Neill Cross Country team needs to be successful,” said Coach Hilker.

Next week the O’Neill Eagles will be competing at the Bloomfield Invitational/Mid-States Conference Meet, which is held at the Bloomfield golf course.  The meet starts at 3:30 p.m. with the boys reserve race first, then girls varsity, followed by boys varsity.

Last week the O’Neill Eagles competed in the UNK Invitational.  There were 139 girl athletes and 188 boy competitors.  In the Class C Girls Race there were 23 teams.  The Class C Boys race had 22 teams.

The O’Neill girls team was able to place sixth as a team. Medaling for the girls was Alejandra Vergara placing 20th.  Other varsity runners were Tasha Lechtenberg 28th,  Brandi Walters 46th, Lizzie Price 61st, Nicole Babutzke 121st and Sarah Pribil 133rd.

“Overall the girls ran at the next level.  Even though not all six had what they thought were successful races.  They competed the last 1000 meters.  This is a big breakthrough,”  said Coach Hilker.

The boys team placed 16th.  Leading the boys again was sophomore Kyle Pardun placing 50th, followed by Nate Gotschall 78th, Joseph Gillham 84th, Blake Walters 88th, Shea Lueninghoener 96th and Humberto Costilla 104th.

“This is such a young team.  Every time they run they are gaining a lot of knowledge.  They need to understand the importance of getting into position the first 1000 meters and then moving up.  They work hard and there is a lot of talent on the team,” commented Hilker.