The Sandy Creek junior high girls track and field team stepped up to the plate big time this past Saturday, May 11, winning the All-Class girls middle school state championship over Bennington South Middle School in action at the home of the Middle School State Track and Field Championships in Gothenburg.
Not only did the SC girls win a state title, but in the process, teammate Madison Shaw was named the girls’ meet “Most Valuable Athlete,” by meet officials, and there is a big reason why Shaw earned the honor: Shaw was second in three individual races on the track, including the 400, 800, and 1600-meter runs, and she anchored Sandy Creek’s 1600-meter relay team that placed second in the event to close out the meet.
In the 400, Shaw’s time of 58.15 seconds placed her second behind Bennington South’s Macie Reiner, who finished the one-lap sprint with a time of 57.74 seconds.
In the 800, Shaw trailed Payton Dolliver of Malcolm by just over five seconds. Dolliver, whose mother, Amber, is a Sandy Creek graduate, finished the two-lap event with a time of two minutes, 20.46 seconds, while Shaw held off Alma’s Kinley Ford, for the runner-up finish, with her time of 2:25.69. Ford placed third with a time of 2:26.16.
The 1600-meter run placed Shaw second behind Papillion’s Emily Hegge in the four-lap race, as Hegge won with a time of 5:13.25, while Shaw wrapped up the distance race with her time of 5:20.43, which secured the runner-up finish by over 10 seconds over Reagan Moody of Ainsworth, as Moody finished with a time of 5:31.06.
Shaw then teamed up with Carrigan Rempe, Collins Hubl, and Kali White to hold off third-place Grandview by 18-tenths of a second in the four-lap, 1600-meter relay.
Sandy Creek finished with a time of 4:17.12, while Grandview placed third with a time of 4:17.30.
Bennington South dominated the race with their winning time of 4:09.49.
Rempe also placed eighth and added a crucial one team point to Sandy Creek’s cause at the end of the 200-meter dash, as her eighth-place time of 30.12 seconds ultimately secured the state championship for the Junior Cougars, as Sandy Creek held off Bennington South 33-32 for the championship trophy.
TOP 10 TEAM SCORES: Sandy Creek 33, Bennington South 32, LaVista 29, Gretna 27, Battle Creek 27, Dundy County-Stratton 24, Gothenburg 22.2, Southwest (Bartley) 20, Waverly 20, Blair 20, Elkhorn 20.
HEMBERGER LEADS COUGAR BOYS Sandy Creek eighth grader, Wyatt Hemberger captured a pair of fifth-place finishes for the Sandy Creek boys middle school team, placing fifth in both the 100, and 100-meter hurdle events in Gothenburg.
Hemberger’s time of 14.88 seconds in the 100 hurdles scored four points for the Cougars, while in the 200 hurdles, he added another four points to the cause with a fifth-place time of 27.7 seconds.
Dreyson Puppe of Laurel- Concord/Coleridge claimed gold in both events, winning the 100 with a time of 13,73 seconds, while in the 200 event, Puppe won with a time of 25.82 seconds. Both of Puppe’s times were new meet records.
