Friday’s Bayard B-C-D Track Invite attracts most of the area’s track and field teams as a final warm-up meet prior to this week’s District competitions. It also gives the smaller schools an opportunity to test themselves against the larger schools. The Banner County boys and the Potter-Dix girls chased Class B Sidney to the bitter end in the team standings before settling for runner up finishes. Sidney won the boy’s division with 85 points, just 1 point better than Banner County High with 84. Sidney also won the girl’s division with 75.3 points while Potter-Dix was second with 72. The two smaller class D schools showed they have some excellent quality athletes who can score big! Behind Sidney and Banner County in the boy’s team scoring in the 18 school field were Chadron with 56, Crawford 48, Bayard 37, Kimball 35, Morrill 34, Alliance 33, Creek Valley 25, Hay Springs 24, Garden County 21, Leyton 19, Mitchell 15, Bridgeport 10, Potter-Dix 1. Banner County’s Four Horsemen once again carried the load for the Wildcats and coach Kenny Hessler. Jaymes Talkington was voted the Most Valuable Male Athlete by the coaches involved. He set a new meet record in winning the triple jump with a best leap of 46 feet 4 and a half inches to equal his career best set the week prior at the MAC Conference meet where he also set a new meet record and established a new school record as well. His record setting jump at the Bayard B-C-D meet broke the old mark of 45’6.5” set by Brad Schwab of Bayard way back in 1980. Talkington also won the long jump with a season best leap of 21’10.5”, and equaled the best high jump of the day when he cleared 6’4”, but first place was given to Hartzler of Sidney using a tie breaking method of misses on previous heights. Talkington also teamed up with Tyler Gifford, Chase Wickard and Brett Cross to run third in the 4x400 relay. Tyler Gifford was also in the running for the Most Valuable Male Athlete of the meet with his two wins in the distant events. Tyler won the 1600 meter run in 5:00.2 and took the 3200 in 10:39.7, plus his relay contributions. Chase Wickard won the 110 meter high hurdles with his time of 15.4 and ran second in the 300 hurdles in 43.1, along with his relay duties. Brett Cross was second only to his team mate in the triple jump with a good effort of 42’3” and was fifth in the long jump at 20’3”, and ran on the relay. Banner County also ran fifth in the 4x800 relay with a time of 10:13.3. Kimball scored 35 points in the boy’s division but did not run their top athletes in some of their usual events as coach Tom Perlinski chose to rest the legs of his top runners for a better showing at the district meet. Tyler Weisbrook had a good day in the throws taking second in the discus on this cold and windy day with a best toss of 118’8” and was fourth in the shotput at 42’8”. Mark Mietus did not run the 400 but ran second in the 800 in 2:08.4. Charles Ferguson ran sixth in the 400 in 54.9. Lyle Janicek ran sixth in the 800 in 2:15.9. Jake Daum was third in the 110 meter high hurdles in 16.2. Daniel Evertson was fifth in the 3200 in 11:33.2, and Shawn Nagel sixth in 11:39.4. Kimball did not run the 4x800 relay, but did finish fourth in the 4x400 relay with Colton Daum, Mark Mietus, Charles Ferguson, and Lyle Janicek running 3:47.4. Potter-Dix with a very limited number of boys this year, got their one point from freshman Ty Ottoson who was sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 37’9”.  Sidney and Potter-Dix took the top two spots in the girl’s division followed by Bridgeport with 62, Alliance 57.3, Chadron 44, Bayard 38, Kimball 32, Hay Springs 30, Morrill 26, Mitchell 20.3, Crawford 18, Hemingford 14, Banner County 13, Garden County 12, Sioux County 11, Minatare 2. Jordan Hooper of Alliance was voted Most Valuable Female Athlete winning the long Jump to better her own meet record at l7’9.5” and winning the 200 meter run. The Potter-Dix girls are loaded with young talent and they have depth in most events. Like always they have high jumpers and Brandie Hermes won the event at Bayard at 4’8” on a day when it was hard to keep the bar on the stands because of the winds. Dani Jones was third at the same height as her winning team mate. Taylor Holz was fourth in the long jump at l5’8.25”. Miss Holz also ran fourth in 100 in 12.5 and won the 100 meter hurdles in 16.1. Brandy Newbanks ran third in the 100 meter hurdles in 17.1 and Tiffany LaBeau won the 300 hurdles in 52.5. Dani Jones ran fifth in the 1600 in 6:10.4. Coach Jess Buller can load up his relay teams with sprinters or middle distance runners and the Lady Coyotes won both the 4x100 relay in 53.8 and the 4x800 relay in 11:19.7. Potter-Dix should be a favorite to win the district and take a bus load of girls to the state track meet. With only one senior on the squad and with what is reported as an outstanding class of junior high athletes, the Lady Coyotes should be the team to deal with for years to come. The Kimball girls are still battling illness and injuries causing coach Larry Pahl much concern. Heather Dickson has been a steady source of points for the Lady Longhorns all season and she got her points at Bayard once again. The talented senior was third in the long jump with a career best of l6’6.25”. In the 100 meter dash she and team mate Whitney Lockwood, both ran the fastest qualifying times in the prelims of 12.5. Dickson came back to run 12.5 in the finals to finish second, and will now share the new school record time with Lockwood as they both bettered the old school record of 12.7 ran by Ellen Johnson in 1983. This wasn’t the only school record of the day as Kaitlin Moritz ran a career best 16.4 in the finals of the 100 meter hurdles to tie the time ran by Brenda Andersen in 1994. Moritz ran second only to Taylor Holz of Potter Dix to bring home the silver medal and shown steady improvement over the season. Her 16.4 time took Chelsie Wangler’s second best school record time of 16.6 into third place. Jaclyn Christensen is another steady performer for the Lady Longhorns finishing second in the shotput at 35’3”. Kimball had tough luck in the 4x100 relay failing to finish, but the 4x800 relay team ran fifth in 12:04.4 with Megan Woods, Cierra Pedersen, Kayli Rageth, and Sadie Sullivan teaming to pick up the fifth place honors. Whitney Lockwood is very questionable for the District meet today (Thursday) but coach Pahl is hoping to have her for at least the 4x100 relay. Tori Hager is still recovering from illness but hopefully will be at full strength by today also. Banner County scored 13 points with Laura Monsees running fourth in the 1600 in the time of 6:05, Bethany Cooper sixth in the shotput at 33’4”, and Kaylea Stoddard sixth in the 300 hurdles in 55.9. The Lady Wildcats 4x800 relay team ran third in 11:26.7 and their 4x400 relay team ran sixth in 4:42.6.