Ten Raiders earn trip to State Track Meet

Even in today's society a trip to Omaha from southcentral Nebraska is still a pretty big deal . . . enough to make everybody smile.

It is especially nice if that trip includes the chance to compete at the annual State Track Meet for high schools.

The 2021 State Track Meet will include ten Lawrence-Nelson High School students. The happy ten were gathered Monday afternoon as they continued their training for the event. They are shown above: (front l to r) Kylie Beard, Aleah Heikkinen, Emma Epley, Elsa Jorgensen, Claire Himmelberg; (back, l to r) Tyson Kotinek, Cole Troudt, Logan Menke, Nolan Ostdiek, Sydney Biltoft.

d to compete at the high school level, it is quite the experience just to watch. With the cancellation of the 2020 event because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 event should be especially nice to watch.

But . . . if you are among the ten L-N Raiders who earned a trip to Omaha this year, you’ll be where the action is.

Six girls and four boys from the L-N High School will be competing this week in a total of eight events on the highest stage in Nebraska for the sport. No more than 24 individuals or teams are allowed for each event and L-N will have six individual competitors and two Relay Teams in Omaha.

The ability to compete at the State Track Meet was earned at the District D-6 District meet held last week in Kenesaw. Eleven teams competed in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions. Individual results follow: (At the District Meets, for individual Running events, the top two qualify for the State plus the six fastest times over the state qualify; for Relays: the winner plus the seven fastest over the state qualify; for Field events: the top two qualify plus the next six best across the state.)

BOYS: Axtell overpowered the field at the Meet. They won with 122 points; BDS 2nd, 98; Kenesaw 3rd, 63; Red Cloud 4th, 49; Harvard 5th, 48; Alma 6th, 41; L-N 7th, 39; Franklin 8th, 23; Silver Lake 9th, 18; Deshler 10th, 14; Wilcox-Hildreth 11th, 9.

The boys brought home one gold medal and two silver medals from this Meet plus six other places to help build the team total. Individual results include:

100 M. Dash: Devyn Zikmund, 6th, 12:41; Trevor Biltoft did not place.

200 M. Dash: AJ Koehler ran for the first time, but did not place.

400 M. Dash: Gabe Zikmund and Evan Jacobitz, no place.

800 M. Run: Nolan Ostdiek 6th, 2:18.25; AJ Koehler ran as did Evan Jacobitz who recorded a PR.

1600 M. Run: Logan Menke continued his gold medal performance in this event by placing first in a time of 4:59.19. He won by three seconds and will compete at the State Meet; Cole Troudt was 4th with a time of 5:12.95.

3200 M. Run: Cole Troudt 2nd, 10:40.56. Cole was just two seconds out of first place and will compete in Omaha this weekend.

400 M. Relay: L-N 5th, 48.85. Trevor Biltoft, Logan Menke, Tyson Kotinek, Devyn Zikmund. The team was just three seconds behind the winner and ran their best time of the season.

1600 M. Relay: L-N 4th, 3:56.24: Tyson Kotinek, Nolan Ostdiek, Gabe Zikmund, Devyn Zikmund.

3200 M. Relay: L-N 2nd, 8:48.68: Logan Menke, Nolan Ostdiek, Tyson Kotinek, Cole Troudt. Time was best of the year and only three seconds behind the winner. However, their time was among the seven fastest times in the state and will compete in Omaha as an additional qualifier. Among those teams at the State Meet, the Raiders post the 6th best time.

High Jump: Trevor Biltoft, no place.

Long Jump: Devyn Zikmund, Trevor Biltoft, no place.

Triple Jump: Tyson Kotinek 6th, 36’3.5”.

Shot Put: Keaton Mazour, Rocky Miller, no place.

Discus: Keaton Mazour, Erik Wheeland, Rocky Miller, no place.

GIRLS: Axtell also won the girls division of this Meet by a substantial margin, 129 points; BDS was 2nd, 65 points; L-N 3rd 64; Kenesaw 4th, 62; Wilcox-Hildreth 5th 50; Deshler 6th, 34; Harvard 5th, 34; Alma 8th, 31; Silver Lake 9th, 26; Franklin 10th 24; Red Cloud 11th, 7.

The Lady Raiders team was just edged out of a 2nd place finish, but did have three individuals qualify for the State Meet via the ‘additional qualifier’ rules. In all, six girls will be competing at the State Track Meet in a total of five events.

Individual results:

100 M. Dash: Elsa Jorgensen 6th, 14:03; McKenzie Ostdiek, Katelyn Mazour, no place.

200 M. Dash: Katelyn Mazour, Tori Miller: no place.

1600 M. Run: Emily Troudt: no place.

3200 M. Run: Jessica Sole 6th, 16:13.86.

100 M. Hurdles: Emma Epley 2nd, 16.06; Sydney Bilotoft 4th, 17.06: Emma qualifies on her own and Sydney’s 4th place time was fast enough to be one of the six fastest times and is an additional qualifier. Emma’s time is the 2nd fastest time listed in this Hurdle event this year.

300 M. Hurdles: Sydney Biltoft 2nd, 49.12. Her second place finish qualifies for the State Meet and is also her personal record for the season.

400 M. Relay: L-N 3rd, 54.83: this team’s best time of the season: Elsa Jorgensen, Emma Epley, McKenzie Ostdiek, Katelyn Mazour.

1600 M. Relay: L-N 1st, 4:29:24: Sydney Biltoft, Aleah Heikkinen, Claire Himmelberg, Elsa Jorgensen. This team improved greatly from the season opener and they needed their personal best of the season as the 2nd place team trailed by only one second.

3200 M. Relay: L-N 3rd, 12:03.84: Claire Himmelberg, Aleah Heikkinen, Jessica Sole, Emily Troudt.

High Jump: Sydney Biltoft 6th, 4’5”.

Long Jump: Emma Epley 2nd, 16’3.5”; Elsa Jorgensen 3rd, 15’9”; Tori Miller, no place. This was Emma first time to break 16 feet this season. Elsa distance was good enough to be one of the state-wide six additional qualifiers.

Shot Put: Kylie Beard 4th, 3’9.75”; four girls from this one District Meet qualified for State. Her distance was third among all additional qualifiers and is listed as being the 9th best qualifying distance at the State Meet. Emily Troudt, no place.

Discus: Aleah Heikkinen 6th, 94’4”; Kylie Beard, no place; Katelyn Mazour, no place, but had a Personal Best for the season.

Because of the pandemic, the State Track Meet schedule has been changed somewhat this year. It will began Wednesday, and ends on Saturday.