Eighteen area athletes qualify for State Track at District D7 Meet in Bertrand

BERTRAND - With wild cards to next week’s State Track and Field Meet in Omaha now official, three area school qualified  18 athletes to next week’s State Meet from the District D7 Meet in Bertrand Wednesday.

The Cambridge girls team continued its dominant season with another team title, outpacing Loomis, 133-79, for the district championship.

The Trojans qualified nine girls in 11 different events.

Paige Sickels swept titles in the 100 (13.25), 200 (27.98) and 400 (1:03.11) while teammate Jalen Kent was runner-up in the 200 (28.17) and qualified as well.

In the 800, Brenna Deterding finished fourth (2:38.48), but received the sixth and final wild card to State. She also finished second to qualify in the 1,600 (6:11.22). Kori Koeppen finished runner-up in the 3,200 (13:03.8) to qualify as well.

Finally on the track, the Cambridge 3,200 relay team of Deterding, Koeppen, Breelle Miller and Kent finished first (10:33.61) to qualify.

In girls field events, Paige Klumpe finished third in the high jump, but hit the automatic qualifying height of 4-11 to reach State while Autumn Deterding also hit the automatic qualifier and then some to finish second in pole vault with a vault of 9-0.

Southwest’s Caylin Barnett finished second in the long jump (15-5.5) and Cambridge’s Jacey Kent took second in the triple jump (31-9).

The final girls qualifier from the area was Schyler Hoberty, who finished third in the discus with a mark of 111-1, but grabbed the first available wild card to qualify for State.

On the boys’ side, Southwest’s Jake O’Dea finished second in both the 1,600 (4:58.42) and the 3,200 (10:47.66) while Cambridge’s Shane Horwart also qualified in the 3,200 as his third-place time of 11:00.39 secured the fifth wild card to the State Meet.

Southwest’s 3,200 relay team of Carter Van Pelt, Matt Van Pelt, Cole Barnett and O’Dea finished second, but ran a top six time in the State and easily secured a wild card to State with a 8:45.83.

In field events, Cambridge’s Quintin Shaner finished first in the triple jump with a 40-9 and Arapahoe’s Tyler Miller was second with a 39-8.5 as both qualified for Omaha.

Shaner finished fifth in the long jump, but his mark of 19-7 was just good enough to earn the final wild card to State.

Finally, Cambridge’s Kyle Borland finished fifth (45-5) in the shot put, but four of the six wild cards to State came from District 7 as all six medalists qualified.

In addition to Cambridge taking the girls’ team title, Southwest finished 10th and Arapahoe was 11th in the girls’ team race.

In the boys’ team race, Southwest finished sixth while Cambridge was seventh and the Warriors took 10th. 

The Class D State Track and Field Meet begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning at Omaha Burke High School.