Thayer Central to send 11 to state meet; Deshler sends seven

C-7 district track competitors were chased off the track last Thursday afternoon when a tornado and severe thunderstorm rolled across the Heartland arena at Henderson. The 400 and 1600 relays as well as the 1600 meter run were postponed until Friday morning.

Both Thayer Central and Deshler competed in the district contest and each will send athletes to the state finals next week.

For the Lady Titans, seniors Cody Long and Michaela Marsh, sophomore Bridgette Baden and freshmen Bailey Linton and Madison Reece will represent Thayer Central.

Long led the way collecting silver medals in both the 100 meter (13 seconds) and 400 meter (1:00.6) dashes. She also qualified in the 200 meter dash with a third place win of 26.4 seconds.

On Friday, Linton finished the 1600 meter run in 6:03.2 for a second place win. On Thursday, she joined Marsh, Baden and Reece on the 3200 relay team which earned a bronze medal on a run of 10:35.7. The runners qualified for the state meet by turning in one of the top five times after the automatic wins of the first place teams.

For the boys, senior Kesston Fink, junior Michael Feulner and sophomores reg Dightman, Dietrich Brinegar, Tyler Van Cleef and Kalen Wenske will head to the state meet after qualifying in their respective events.

Dightman led the way by doubling his gold medals in the jumping events. In the long jump he cleared 20’4” for the win and in the triple jump leaped 40’7.5”.

Brinegar also collected a gold for the Titans after winning the 300 hurdles in 42.8 seconds despite controversy surrounding his finish. Brinegar crossed the finish line in the wrong lane after tripping on the final hurdle, and although the win was overturned, officials later ruled it good. The sophomore also collected a bronze in the 110 hurdles finishing the race in 16 seconds flat.

Feulner qualified for the state meet after winning the 1600 meter run on Friday. On Thursday, the junior finished the 800 meter run in 2:03.6 for a silver medal. He then joined Van Cleef, Wenske and Fink in the 3200 relay for a first place finish of 8:29.1.

Deshler Dragons

The Deshler Dragons look to send seven athletes to the state meet including seniors Tiffany Herbek, Kylie Betten, Thomas Vonderfecht and Cody Loupin, and juniors Lane Baker, Josiah Burger and Luke Dlouhy.

For the Lady Dragons, Herbek qualified in the long jump with a second place leap of 15’6”. Betten also collected a silver medal to qualify in the 3200 meter run with a district time of 12:46.8.

For the men’s team, Vonderfecht pocketed the gold medal in the 400 meter dash with a 51.5 run, then earned silver in the 200 meter dash with a run of 22.4 seconds.

Loupin earned the silver in the 400 meter dash with a run of 52.3, then collected a qualification in the 100 meter dash with a third place race of 11.1 seconds.

Baker cleared a 5’8” bar to take second place in the high jump and qualify for state.

Finally, the men’s 1600 relay team including Burger, Dlouhy, Vonderfecht and Loupin finished in 3:41.8 to earn a spot in the state race.

Information for the 2011 NSAA State High School Track Meet held May 20-21 at Burke Stadium in Omaha can be found at www.nsaahome.org.