Track athletes from 11 schools battled each other and terrible weather conditions at the Morrill George Calvert Track Invite on Friday and despite the weather turned in some admirable marks. Mitchell won the girls division while Southeast captured the team title in the boy’s division.

Looking first at the girls division, behind Mitchell with 107 points were Morrill 87, Crawford 67, Bridgeport 62, KIMBALL 62, Southeast 44, Bayard 30, BANNER COUNTY 18, Sidney 12, Gering 6, Sioux County 1.

The Lady Longhorns were without the services of one of their top point getters as Kaitlin Moritz sat out to give her hip injury a better chance to heal. Hannah Stull has yet to compete with her ham string pull but is starting to work out this week, and a pair of talented freshmen, Gabby Farrar and Yadira Portello are also on the injured list.

“With these four ladies missing from our lineup, I felt 62 points was a pretty good day,” said coach Larry Pahl who also said the weather conditions may not have been the worst he has ever been involved with at a track meet.

“But it was certainly in the top three ever,” said Pahl.

No gold medal performances for the Lady Longhorns but Kayli Rageth picked up a pair of silvers in finishing second in the 1600 in 6:10 and second in the 3200 in 13:30.

Whitney Lockwood ran second in the 100 meter dash with a time of 13.0 with Tori Hager fourth in 13.3. Hager also ran fourth in the 200 in 28.6.

The 4x100 relay team made up of Dianne Baluska, Cierra Pedersen, Hager and Lockwood ran second with a time of 54.6, two tenths of a second slower than Mitchell, and the second fastest time this season for Kimball.

The 4x400 relay consisting of Baluska, Pedersen, Lockwood and Halley Keller ran third with a time of 4:35. It was the first time coach Pahl had ran Lockwood in the event, and also a first time for freshman Keller.

“We were looking at some different people in experimenting with what we might be able to do with this event,” said Pahl.

Lockwood ran a 55 second split and Keller a 59 second leg.

Kimball also got some points in the field events with Annie McCloud third in the triple jump at 29-feet .5-inches, and Tori Reader fifth at 28-feet 6.5-inches. Sam Long was 2nd in the high jump at 4-feet 4-inches.

“Our jumpers had a real challenge with the wet conditions.

The high jumpers would land on the pit and water would just fly. After they were done they were completely drenched. I felt our triple jumpers did quite well considering the weather and we are now looking at having a pair of 30 foot plus triple jumpers,” Pahl said.

Pahl said the rain gear the athletes had were good for about two hours and then they were soaked through.

“We are lucky we didn’t have any kids come down with colds from this outing.” said Pahl.

In the boys division behind Southeast with 101 points were Mitchell with 90, Crawford 75, KIMBALL 62, Morrill 56, Gering 43, Bridgeport 38, Sidney 27, Bayard 2, Minatare 2, BANNER COUNTY 2.

A pair of gold medal performances for coach Tom Perlinski’s Longhorn boys. Brady Land has become a consistent 20 foot plus long jumper ever since he made the break-through at an earlier Morrill meet. He won his pet event Friday with a leap of 20-feet 9-inches and he will put his talents on display at the Best of the West held Tuesday at Scottsbluff.

Jake Daum ran a career best flight of hurdles at Morrill, not letting the weather bother him. He led the field to the tape in the 110 meter highs with an excellent time of 15.8 which also got him an invitation to the Best of the West.

“Jake ran a smooth flight of hurdles for the first time this year and had great improvement on his time,” said coach Perlinski.

The Horns picked up a second place in the 4x100 relay with Daum, Land and Dalton Lockwood and Allen Muneio running 47.30.

Daum, Land, Shawn Nagel, and Trevor Petersen ran third in the 4x400 relay with a time of 3:56.

Muneio also finished third in the long jump with a leap of 18-feet 3-inches, Jorge DeLeon was fourth in the high jump at 5-feet 4-inches, and Lockwood ran fourth in the 100 meter dash in 11.70.

Another good day on the track for senior distance ace Sean Ganskow who ran third in the 1600 in 5:22 and 3rd in the 3200 in 11:35.

Kimball’s sprinters, Lockwood, Muneio, and Brady Knigge all showed improved times.

Robert Eby improved his 400 meter time, as did Spencer Luppen in the 1600.

Freshman Nolan Adrian improved his 110 meter hurdle time, DeLeon improved his high jump height, and Muneio had a best long jump of the season. The weight people also showed improvement with Mic Rohde having a better shot put heave, and Andrew Barrett a better discus throw.

“It was a cold and wet day but most of our kids responded well and competed hard,” said coach Perlinski.

The Horns also, lost possible points in the pole vault as it was cancelled because of the conditions.

The Kimball tracksters are off to Torrington today, Thursday, and also were to send athletes to the Best of the West meet held in Scottsbluff this past Tuesday.

As mentioned, Land and Daum made it for the Kimball boys. For the girls, Kaitlin Moritz made it in the 100 meter hurdles, Whitney Lockwood in the 100 and 200, Tori Hager in the 200, Kayli Rageth in the 3200, and the 4x100 relay team of Moritz, Pedersen, Lockwood, and Hager also qualified.