Sports

A total of five members of the two Sutton trap shooting teams wrapped up the Central Nebraska Trapshooting Conference as all-conference selections, as teams closed out the regular season at the Crooked Creek Gun Club near Stockham, Saturday, April 27.

For the junior squad, Aniston Jasnoch was a first-team selection for the girls squad, while on the boys side, Cord Pope earned second-team honors.

On the seniors’ side of the final shoot of the season, Leah Cool was selected to the girls first-team, while Nolen Engel was a second-team selection for the boys, Gavin Vander-Ley captured third-team honors.

On the weekly side of the final standings, Jasnoch was the girls runner-up from the 16-yard mark, as she was 41-50 overall, while Cord Pope led the Sutton juniors overall, hitting on 44 of 50 targets.

The always challenging Southern Nebraska Conference meet proved, yet again, to be a big challenge for the Sandy Creek boys track and field team, as the Cougars, in action at Sutton High School, Saturday, April 27, placed fifth, scoring 44 team points at meet’s end.

A pair of gold medal performances set the tone for the Cougars, as on the track, senior Owen Oglesby topped the 400-meter dash, while in the field, freshman Wes Biltoft claimed the high jump win.

Oglesby’s win came with a time of 50.38 seconds to hold off second-place finisher, Isaac Roth of Milford, who finished with a time of 51.21 seconds.

Biltoft’s gold medal performance came with a 5’ 10” effort to claim the win over three other jumpers who also cleared the same height, including Colby Rautenberg of Milford, Carter Siebert of Heartland, and Brayden Johnson of David City.

Sutton’s 2024 boys golf team found themselves in a big situation following the completion of the Sandy Creek Invitational, Tuesday, April 16, as the Mustangs held off two other strong teams in Doniphan-Trumbull and Sandy Creek to claim their first team title of the season.

The tournament, held at the Crooked Creek Country Club’s nine-hole course in Clay Center, earned Sutton the team title by two strokes over second-place Doniphan Trumbull, and by eight strokes over the host Cougars.

Sutton, behind the impressive play of their two medalists, Jadyn Friesen and Harrison Herndon outshot the Cardinals 333-335, while Sandy Creek ended the 18hole tournament with a 341.

Friesen claimed the individual championship behind a stellar score of 74 to win by four strokes over second-place medalist, Lukas Armstrong of Red Cloud, as Armstrong fired a 78, as did third-place medalist, Hayden Dzingle of D-T.

Senior Logan Sanders and junior Connor Rempe paced the Sandy Creek boys golf team in action on their home course, the Crooked Creek Country Club in Clay Center, as the Cougars finished third overall in the 14-team tournament, Tuesday, April 16.

Sanders fired an 18-hole 81, to place fifth overall, while Rempe’s 84 placed him eighth to help the Cougars to the third-place team finish behind Sutton and Doniphan- Trumbull.

The Mustangs outshot the Cardinals 333-335, while the Cougars followed with a 341 in the final standings.

Sanders’ day opened with a front nine 39, before closing out the day with a 42 on the back nine to card his 81.

Rempe began the day with a 43 during the first round, while wrapping up the day with a 40 to finish with an 83.

Rounding out the field for the Cougars was senior Jake Dane with an 86 to finish 14th overall. Dane carded a front nine 42, and finished off the day with a 44.

Sutton junior Jadyn Friesen, the lone golfer for the Sutton squad in action at Lincoln Lutheran earned his third straight medal at the annual tournament, as Friesen placed 11th overall in action that had to deal with rough weather conditions.

The rest of Sutton’s golf team was involved with district music competition, leaving Friesen the lone golfer in the meet for coach Randy Ahrens Friesen’s 11th place medal came on the heels of shooting scores of 47 on the front nine and 42 on the back nine to total 89 strokes throughout the 18--hole tournament at the Crooked Creek Golf Course east of Lincoln.

Lincoln Christian golfer, David Watson won the individual title by five strokes over a trio of Lincoln Pius X junior varsity golfers that carded scores of 82. Watson shot a 77 for the win.

After an incredibly successful year of shooting, the Hillsdale College Shotgun Team finished the season with the biggest possible win: the ACUI/SCTP Division II High Overall Team National Championship. Taking place at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio from March 19-23, the competition featured 1,150 athletes from 107 different schools, 20 of which were teams competing in Division II.

This is the Chargers’ first victory in Division II (teams with 11-20 athletes competing) following a total of seven wins in Division III since the program’s inception.

All but eight of the Sutton Mustangs 40 points in action at the Heartland Invitational, April 9 in Henderson, came on the track, as Sutton finished sixth as a team, while McCool Junction outscored second place Hastings St. Cecilia for the team title, 163-118.

Senior Cole Baumert was the lone gold medalist on the track for Sutton, winning the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.26 seconds to outrun second-place medalist Nick Thieszen of Heartland by over one second, as Thieszen finished in 53.82 seconds.

Keith Kliewer added two more points in the 400, as the sophomore finished fifth with his time of 56.18 seconds.

Baumert added a third-place finish to his credit in the 800-meter run with a time of two minutes, 10.29 seconds. Winning the two-lap event was McCool Junction’s Trenton Orlando with a time of 2;07.29.

Sandy Creek girls track, and field team headed to Henderson for the Heartland track and field invitational, Tuesday, April 9, and would finish fifth with a total of 70 points.

The Cougars ended the meet with three gold medals, one coming from the 4x400 relay team, and two from Emma Fisher.

In the field events Sandy Creek racked up a couple medals. One medal came from Jenae Calderon in the shot put finishing fifth with a throw of 32’01” and winning the shot put was Ryann Sabatka of Hastings St. Cecilia with a throw of 35’06”.

The other medal came from Anna Paus in the pole vault as she cleared 7’11” to place third, winning the event was Mariah Tessman of Heartland clearing 9’05”.

Moving to the track, in the 100-meter dash Claire Williamson finished in fourth place with a time of 14.13 seconds, and winning the 100-meter dash was McKenna Yates of McCool Junction with a time of 13.28 seconds.

Sandy Creek hosted their annual home invite Tuesday, April 2, and would come in fourth place with 54 total team points falling behind third Hastings St. Ceclia with 99 points, second Doniphan-Trumbull with 115 points, and first-place Central City with 132 points.

Sandy Creek earned two gold medals both in the hurdle events by two different Cougars, as in the 110-meter high hurdles, Ethan Shaw took gold with a time of 16.50 seconds, while in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Owen Oglesby finished first with a time of 42.46 seconds, with Shaw placing fourth with a time of 45.60 seconds.

Ben Sullivan scored points for the Cougars in the 100-meter dash with a fifth-place finish in a time of 11.39 seconds. Winning the 100 was Jenson Anderson of Hastings St. Cecilia with a time of 10.87 seconds.

Week two award winners for the Sutton Trap team, for the shoot, Saturday, March 30, at the Crooked Creek Gun Club near Stockham included Aniston Jasnoch as the junior girls runner up, hitting on 39 of 50 targets. Jasnoch also joined forces with Gretha Andersen to claim the junior girls runner-up team title, as the two combined to hit on 71 of 100 total targets.

Two senior girls honors were also earned during the March 30 shoot, as the Sutton team, made up of Laurel Moore and Elsa Andersen tied with the Crooked Creek team for the senior girls championship, as both teams hit on 150 of 200 total targets.

Moore and Elsa Andersen also claimed the senior girls runner-up trophy, also hitting on 150 of 200 targets.

Individual leaders for the week two shoot included Nolen Engel and Angus Andersen, as Engel was 86-100 overall, while Andersen was 81-100.