Making the grade

PONCA — The Cedar Catholic boys track team dominated the competition Thursday to win the District C4 track title.

The Trojans nearest competitor finished 40 points back.

The Cedar girls secured fourth place and a number of Trojan athletes qualified for the state finals in Omaha this week. Cedar will be represented by seven girls competing in six events at State.

Nine Cedar Catholic athletes will compete in 13 different events at the Boys Class C State Track Meet.

“Our showing in the field events really allowed us to get off to a great start in the team points standings,” Cedar Catholic head coach Chad Cattau said. “By the time the field events were completed, we had already qualified seven athletes for the state meet. I really feel this gave us a lot of momentum and energy heading into the running events.

“I am extremely proud of the way all of our boys prepared throughout the season for this meet. A bunch of the kids had their best showing on the track of the entire season and that’s all we can ask of them.”

The boys that are Omaha-bound are double champion Carson Noecker (1,600 and 3,200 meters), Owen Heimes (champion, 300 hurdles; champion, long jump; wildcard, 110 hurdles), the champion 4x800 relay (Noecker, Parker Albers, Carson Arens, Dagen Joachimsen), Carson Arens (champion, high jump; second, 800 meters), Blake Arens (champion, pole vault) Jaxson Bernecker (champion, discus; second, triple jump; second shot put), Alex Kuehn (second, 400 meters) and the 4x400 relay (Joachimsen, Carson Arens, Easton Becker, Kuehn, second).

Cattau saw a number of personal records scattered throughout the day, which was a great accomplishment, he said.

“It shows us that all of our kids became better athletes and more competitive throughout the season, which is what we ask from each and every one of them,” Cattau said of the boys. “Each and every person on the team contributed to this district title in some way. It’s days like this that are truly a great reminder that this is a team sport and we needed everyone’s contributions in order to finish where we did.”

Lets not forget the girls as they also did plenty to make things interesting.

“I thought our girls really came out and competed hard throughout the meet,” Cattau said. “We knew we wouldn’t score a lot of points in the field events because of the level of competition in those events, so we knew we would need to be extremely competitive in the running events. Each of the 13 girls we had out this year gave us a great amount of time and effort, and I am so thankful for that. It takes a great sacrifice to participate in track and these girls brought a great attitude and work ethic throughout the season.”

Qualifying for state were the champion 4x800 relay team (Sara Burbach, Makenzie Arens, Jordyn Steffen, Laney Kathol), Kathol (champion, 400 meters; second 800 meters), Grace Reifenrath (champion, 200 meters), Sophia Reifenrath (second, 100 meters), Burbach (second, 1,600 meters), Faith Christensen (wildcard, 100 meters) and the 4x400 relay wildcard team (Christensen, Grace and Sophia Reifenrath, Kathol).

“We had a lot of season-best times on the year, and as a coach, that’s all we can ask of the girls,” Cattau said. “They really learned how to be mentally tough and compete when we needed them most. I am really looking forward to seeing what our qualifiers can do once we get to Omaha next week.”

Makenzie Arens gets to punctuate her senior year by heading to state in her prep swan song.

“It really amazes me how far we’ve come since the beginning of the year,” she said. “We’ve really picked up from the beginning of the season. I can’t wait to see what the track team is going to do and in the future. We have some good freshmen and have some good kids coming in.”

Arens talked about the days of COVID-19 and how fast the year has gone and yet the 2020 shutdown seems so far away.

“This year, I remember the first day of senior year like now – it flew by,” she said. “I am going to miss all sports and I can’t believe that next week I am going to be done with high school. It didn’t slow down ever. It kept going.

“When COVID hit, it was the biggest downfall, but otherwise, we were really lucky. Last year’s class? I feel bad for them. We actually got to finish.”

Boys Team Standings

1. Cedar Catholic, 149; 2. Wakefield, 109; 3. Bancroft-Rosalie-Lyons-Decatur NE, 59; 4. Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, 54; 5. Tri County NE, 52; 6. Ponca 42; 7. Crofton, 41; 8. Homer, 20; 9. Winnebago, 1.

Girls Team Standings

1. Crofton, 120; 2. Ponca, 99; 3. Tri County NE, 89; 4. Cedar Catholic, 87; 5. Wakefield, 52; 6. Bancroft-Rosalie-Lyons-Decatur NE, 34; 7. Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, 24; 8. Homer, 21.

Stay in the know!

To get news alerts on your cell phone, get the Cedar County News app in the ITunes store or  in the Google Play Store.