Cedar track teams off to a great start on the new season

HARTINGTON — The Cedar Catholic track-and-field teams enjoyed recent success in a couple of meets last week.

The Trojans and Lady Trojans opened last week with a pair of second-place team finishes at the Hartington-Newcastle Invitational and then traveled to Homer for the Ivan Krumwiede Invitational on April 4 and 5, respectively. The Trojans finished third and the Lady Trojans were fourth at Homer.

“I thought we performed very well for the first couple of outdoor meets; we need to improve and work hard to progress this year,” first-year Cedar Catholic head track coach Blair Kalin said. “It was a nice start.”

The Lady Trojans were fourth in the Krumwiede meet with 77.5 points. Homer won the girls’ division of the event with 130 points, Ponca was second with 115 and Oakland-Craig was third with 88.

Lauren Bernecker led Cedar Catholic on the track in Homer while Lexi Eickhoff and Addison Walter paced the Lady Trojans in the field.

Bernecker won the 200 and Eickhoff won the throwing events; Walter was third in both throwing events.

Bernecker also combined with Anisten Wortmann, Kaly Becker and Brynn Bernecker to place second the 1.600-meter relay while the squad of Brynn Bernecker, Claire and Isabel Rolfes and Becker won the 3,200-meter relay.

The Rolfes sisters also scored points individually with Claire taking third in the open 400 and Isabel placing fourth in the 800. Isabel also placed fifth in the high jump at 4-feet-4-inches.

In the boys’ division of the Krumwiede meet, Alex Kuehn and Braeden Reifenrath paced the Trojans on the track.

Reifenrath won the 100 and Kuehn won the 200. Reifenrath ran a leg in the Cedar Catholic 400-meter relay along with Breiton Whitmire, Mason Baller and Booker Hochstein, who circled the track once in 46.02 seconds to grab a gold medal.

The 3,200-meter relay quartet of Nolan Becker, Alex Elks, Kighter Wortmann and Matthew Loecker combined for eight laps in 9:16.40, which was good enough for second.

The 1,600-meter relay team of Whitmire, Becker, Loecker and Kuehn was fourth.

The Trojans scored big in the hurdles in the meet with the trio of Easton Hochstein, Nolan Heimes and Wes Pinkelman finishing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in both the 110-meter high hurdles and the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.

Hochstein also placed fourth in the long jump.

Aaron Wortmann was third in the high jump while Jared Rutar placed fifth in the discus after just missing points in the shot put, in which he finished seventh.

Hunter Kuchta was sixth in the 400 and Adam Elks was sixth in the 1,600.

At the Hartington-Newcastle meet, Lauren Bernecker was again the main weapon for the Lady Trojans on the track and Eickhoff and Walter led the way in the throwing events.

Cedar Catholic finished just seven points away for the big trophy as Pender won the title with 94 points and the Lady Trojans scored 87.

Bernecker won the 200 and 400 and Eickhoff won the shot put and discus.

Walter was second in the shot put and sixth in the discus.

Anisten Wortmann won the long jump by more than two feet, hitting the sand after sailing 17-feet-10-inches, but it was a costly win as she broke her arm on one of her attempts and required some surgery to repair the damage.

“She broke the school record in the long jump,” Kalin said. “We’ll wait and see what the future of her season will be.”

Bernecker joined her sister Brynn, Wortmann and Kaly Becker to win the 1,600-meter relay while Brynn ran with the Claire and Isabel Rolfes and Becker to place second in the 3,200-meter relay.

Claire Rolfes was second in the individual 1,600, running a 5:48.33 to grab a silver medal.

“It was really nice today; we’ve been running in the cold and the wind all spring,” Rolfes said. “Today was perfect; now we just need to keep training, and hopefully outdoors, to get better and better.”

Isabel Rolfes earned a fifth-place medal in the 800 run.

The Cedar Catholic boys were right on the heels of team champion Ponca, which put up 133 points, while the Trojans scored 123.

Kuehn, Loecker and Nolan Becker were the nucleus of a good day on the track.

“Alex has been great early in the season,” Kalin said. “He long jumped well and is one of the best 400 runners in the state.”

Kuehn won the 400 and was second in the long jump with a best of 20-08. He also ran legs in 400-meter and 1.600-meter relays, which placed first and second, respectively.

In the 400 relay, he was joined by Whitmire, Baller and Reifenrath, and in the 1,600, it was Whitmire, Loecker and Nolan Becker.

“It’s really cool to get this season going,” Becker said of his junior season. “We don’t have Carson Noecker or Carson Arens to lean on this year, so it’s time for some other people to step up. I’m all about the team; I love being out here with our guys and competing for Cedar Catholic. It should be a fun year.”

The Cedar Catholic 3,200-meter relay team of Loecker, Alex Elks, Kighter Wortmann and Nolan Heimes also won that event.

Loecker won the 800 while teammate Kighter Wortmann was fourth; Adam and Alex Elks were fourth and fifth in the 1,600 while Adam was fifth in the 3,200.

Aaron Wortmann was third in the high jump while teammate Hunter Bensen was sixth; Brady Hochstein was fourth in the pole vault.

Rutar and Sam Wiebelhaus scored in the throwing events. Rutar was second in the shot put and the discus; Wiebelhaus was fourth in the discus and sixth in the shot put.

The Trojans and Lady Trojans were set to host their own invitational on April 9 before heading to South Dakota for the Bon Homme Invitational in Tyndall.

IVAN KRUMWIEDE INVITATIONAL Girls Team Results: 1. Homer 130; 2. Ponca 115; 3. Oakland-Crg 88; 4. Cedar Catholic 77.50; 5. Missouri Valley-Anthon-Oto 52; 6 Bancroft-Rosalie 21; 7. Winnebago 15.50; 8. Scribner-Snydr 10; Siouxland Christian 4; 10. Walthill 2.

Girls Individual Results (Top 2 in each event and Cedar Catholic results: 100: 1. Olivia Taylor (PON) 13.94; 2. Mia Thomsen (O-C) 14.06; 10. Savannah Pick 14.62.

200: 1. Lauren Bernecker (CC) 27.60; 2. Reagan Seuntjens 28.36.

400: 1. Avery McAfee (PON) 1:05.07; 2. Carolyn Magnusson (O-C) 1:06.79; 3. Claire Rolfes (CC) 1:07.84.