Eagles Host 15 Teams In O'Neill Invite

Last Friday the O'Neill Eagles hosted the O'Neill Inivite with 15 teams attending. There were 70 high school female competitors, 112 high school male athletes and 59 junior high competitors.

The girls started off the day with sophomore phenomenon Alejandra Vergara leading the OʼNeill Eagles girls team with a ninth overall individual finish, to help the Eagles with a third place standing. Other varsity runners were senior, Lizzie Price 19th, Abby Gillham 20th, Brandi Walters 25th, Ellery Butterfield 30th and Catrina Spangler 35th.

In the girls junior varsity division the girls were runner-up with with 34 points. Medalling in the girls junior varsity division was Kaylee Harvey with a ninth place finish. Other runners placing for the Eagles were Sarah Pribil 16th, Nicole Babutzke 17th and Makala Hladky 20th.

The varsity boys competed in a tough team competition with junior Kyle Pardun placing 11th to help put the Eagles in a fourth place finish. Freshman, Grant Johnston placed 13th to earn a medal. Competing at varsity level were Joseph Gillham 21st, Shea Lueninghoener 22nd, Blake Walters 23rd and Nate Gotschall 24th.

The junior varsity boys won their  division with 19 points. Blake Johnston placed first, Humberto Costilla second and Kyle Fowler sixth, all earned medals. Other Eagle competitors were Cory Rowse 15th, Casey Vandersnick 20th, Dylan Belik 28th, Miguel Ochoa 29th and James Walton 40th.

The junior high team ran extremely well, earning their second first place finish as a team. Medallists were Nathaniel Jennings, who earned first place honors, Ehric Strope third, Devin Jurgensmeier fourth and Jordan Ross sixth. Rounding out the OʼNeill Eagles team were Cody Watson 13th, Segio Gonzalez 15th, Tyler Beeks 16th and Jared Peed 22nd. In the girls division Tejlor Strope placed 31st.

 “Overall, we are running faster times than we did last year on the the same courses. We need to just keep working on becoming stronger every meetand if we do that we will be right where we want to be,” said Coach Hilker.

 ext week the OʼNeill Eagles will run at the Boone Central Individual Invitational. The invite will start at 5:00 p.m. Come support the Eagles.