Ty Ottoson experienced an up and down weekend in Omaha.

He advanced to the finals in both of his individual events and finished sixth overall in the 110 hurdles. But when he went down, he fell hard.

Rounding the turn during the 300 meter hurdles, the outgoing senior nailed a hurdle and tumbled to the track--crossing a lane in the process, disqualifying his time.

“I slipped out of the blocks; I knew my step was going to be off,” he explained. “It’s still great to be in the finals.”

Like Ottoson, the Coyotes tallied disappointments, near misses and a few moments of pride during their time at Burke Stadium.

On Friday Taylor Holz barely survived a busy 90 minutes that saw her rush between preliminary 100 hurdles, 100 meter dash and pole vault competitions.

“It was hard,” she pointed out. “I wasn’t really focused on the hurdles.”

In one of her premier events, the Potter-Dix star clipped a hurdle and dropped more than half a second off her district pace, missing out on finals by two-tenths. Her district time of 16.2 would have landed her fourth spot in Saturday’s championship.

“I don’t usually mess up like I did,” she admitted. “I was off from the beginning. Then in pole vault I just wanted to be done.”

When it came time for the 100 meter dash, however, Holz rebounded swiftly.

She nabbed the sixth qualifying position with a time of 12.9--well ahead of her 13.2 district mark. On Saturday in the finals, Holz burst from the blocks again. In a tight race, she edged Heartland’s Jennifer Yoder by a thousandth--12.96 to 12.97. The time proved good enough for third place in the state, behind Shelby Garland of BDS (12.6) and CWC’s Jordan Wietzki (12.8).

“I was ready, I was focused,” she said moments after crossing the line. “I said ‘okay, this is it--put it all out there’ and I just ran hard.”

Her podium was the best finish for a local athlete at the 2012 state track meet and marked the close of a stellar high school career.

“Maybe a gold would have been better, but it’s a good ending,” she said with a smile.

Conner Wolff dropped out of the high jump event after four feet ten inches. Kaidee Livingstone could not clear the five foot bar that bedeviled her all season, either. And she fell short of promotion to the 100 hurdles championship round by perhaps the length of a shoe.

“At least I didn’t biff it this year like last year,” she said, “so it’s OK with me.”

Meanwhile Tiffany LaBeau posted one of her best 300 hurdles times of the year in Friday’s prelims, breaking the light in 48.6 seconds to earn a place in Saturday’s finals.

The championship round was night and day, however, as she stumbled slightly coming off the blocks and finished eighth, more than half a second behind her Friday time and more than a second in the wake of K.C. Heimann of Howells,

“That did not go to plan,” she pointed out.

Andrea Werth of Eustis-Farnam picked up the win, recording a time of 46.5.

The girls 4x100 relay team of LaBeau, Livingstone, Holz and Wolff turned in a school record--52.1--which was only good enough for the tenth spot on Burke Stadium’s video scoreboard.

“It’s such a difficult competition,” Livingstone pointed out. “It’s so surreal.”



For the boys, state proved equally exciting and exasperating.

Clint Serres missed out on place in the 400 meter dash finals by a sliver, his 52.9 falling to Paxton’s Tyler Schimonitz’s 52.8.

“I knew lane four [Colin Van Groningen of Sterling] was quick so I tried to stay up with him,” Serres said. “But the heat got to me--that last 100 was tough.”

Temperatures on Friday climbed into the 90s, scoured at times by strong wind gusts. The sea of spectators and high level of competition also troubled some of the Coyotes.

“Some of those guys are monsters,” reported shot putter Cody Aure. Although he beat frequent rival Frantzlee LaCrete by four inches with a throw of 39 feet 11, Aure’s efforts fell two feet short of his own district mark--and quite a distance in arrears of gold winner Michael Shoff. The Cambridge thrower kicked up dust at nearly 61 feet.

“I was nervous,” Aure admitted. “I was off balance and my throws were slow.”

Jeff Maddox shared in the tension as he watched the marshall raise his arm to start the 4x800 relay.

“By the time I was walking down to the start I was shaking,” he said. “This is nothing like Best of the West.”

The team of Maddox, Luke Johnson, Bryant Knigge and Jake Johnson completed the laps in 8:52.4--a full two seconds ahead of their district mark, but well behind the winning time of 8:13.2 posted by Paxton. They finished 14th.

In the 4x400, Potter-Dix fell victim to strong competition. Serres, Maddox, Ottoson and Luke Johnson avoided the cellar by a less than comfortable margin.

“There are fast teams out there--stuff we haven’t seen all year,” Maddox observed.

Serres, who ran the anchor leg, doubled over after the race, panting from the effort. “I was just trying to catch up so we wouldn’t be last,” he said. “I’m still trying to catch my breath.”

Luke Johnson wound up 15th in a tight 800 meter field. His time of 2:06.2 was just four seconds off the final points place and seven in the slipstream of Hitchcock County’s Austin Blume, who won with a 1:59.6. Brother Jake Johnson found his way into the middle of the 1600 pack, completing the course in 4:50.7--two ticks off his goal, which was the school record.

The freshman had interest, but no real hope, in a medal at state, explaining that he three years remain to pursue that goal.

“I give credit to my coaches, my family and my teammates for pushing me to the the mile,” he said. “It’s my strongest event now.”

Although he fell more than a foot short of a points position in pole vault--and well short of gold medalist Brandon Benson of Axtell, who cleared 15-04 to set a class D state record, Knigge came away from Omaha with a mark of his own.

His vault of 12 foot even broke his own school record by a full twelve inches.

“It felt good today,” he said. “It’s fun going in front of a lot of people.”

Omaha and the Burke Stadium crowds work different ways on different athletes.