Tuesday April 10^th Osmond Track & Field teams traveled to Neligh for their Invitational.  The weather was the warm and partly cloudy with a light breeze, best day of the season by far. Both Tiger teams took advantage of the weather to score big points as the boy’s were second to host Neligh 153 to 125.  The girls scored 82 points behind 97.5 by Elkhorn Valley and 103 by Champion Plainview.

          The start of the girl’s scoring came when Makenzie Johnson won the high jump at 4’8 and Caitlin Kumm took third place at 4’6. Mary Kahny earned second place honors in the discus with a throw of 89’9.  Then Kelly Schuettler placed sixth in the shot put at 29’1. 

          The boy’s didn’t score quite as well as hoped in the field, but Alexis Solorzano won the shot put on his last throw.  He had trailed Schindler of EPPJ till then.  His mark was 41’ ½.  Later he collected fourth place in the discus with a toss of 95’ 6.  Two jumpers scored in the long jump, Colton Beacom fifth and Nick Reikofski sixth.  Both Tigers has the same distance of 17’9, but Colton had the tie breaker with the longer second jump. Finally Justus Maertins placed fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 36’11.

          On the track the girl’s 3200 relay team ran a super race leading till the final 60 meters.  Lexi Beacom led off and handed to Antonia vonMeer.  Antonia kept the team with the front runners and handed to Elisa Herrera.  Elisa also maintained position handing off to Madeline Huwaldt who immediately took the lead.  She had a good finish kick but could not hold off EPPJ and HLHF.  Their third place time was 12:26.2 their fastest of the season.

          Haven Schultze won the 100 meters in 13.6 then was runner up in the 200 meters in 28.2.  Kennedy Johnson won the 400 meters in 66.0, Makenzie Johnson was fourth in the 100 hurdles in a time of 18.3, and Lexi Beacom placed sixth in the 3200 meters in 15:58.5. 

          The 400-relay team of Kennedy Johnson, Makenzie Johnson, Haven Schultze, and Andrea Schmit won in a time of 54.9 and the same foursome placed second in the 1600-relay in 4:41.1. 

          On the track for the boy’s the 3200-relay team easily outdistanced the field in their season’s best time of 9:13.2.  Team members were Johnson Chishiba, Joshua Gansebom, Jared Bessmer, and Anthony Heiman.  Later in the 400 meters Osmond scored big as Anthony won in a time of 54.4, Johnson edged Connor Gutz for fifth place.  Johnson was timed at 58.2 and Connor 58.3.  Anthony and Johnson later placed second and third in the 800 meters as Anthony edged Johnson 2:17.4 to 2:17.8. 

          The Tigers scored well in the distance races also as Jared Bessmer took second in the 3200 meters and Joshua Gansebom was third.  Jared’s time was 11:20.6 and Joshua 11:51.3.  The duo did a nice job in the 1600 meters later in the day with Jared finishing second at 5:07.6 and Joshua fourth at 5:36.9. 

          Justus Maertins and Keaton Timmerman scored well in the hurdle events.  Justus was second in the 110 highs at 18.1 and Keaton was fourth at 19.6.  In the 300 hurdles Justus again was second in 44.3 and Keaton sixth with a time of 50.5.  Senior Alex Palu had a nice day in the sprints finishing third in both the 100 and 200 meters.  His 100 time was 11.8 and 200 was 24.3.  Alex also led off the 1600-relay team which collected the gold medal easily winning by 11 seconds.  Alex was joined by Connor Gutz, Justus Maertins, and Anthony Heiman and their time was 3:47.9. 

          “We really ran well and it was nice to have a better day for the meet” noted Coach Joe Ortmeier.  “We had a lot of standout performances and still have room to improve.”

Girls Scores                                                  Boys Scores