Triple jump gold medal vaults SCC girls into 2nd place

KEARNEY - In the final event of the Nebraska-Kearney Indoor Invitational, Kelli Schumacher triple jumped to the gold medal and helped the Scotus Central Catholic girls track and field team hop, skip and jump over two teams to finish as the runner-up.

Schumacher recorded a leap of 33 feet, 9 inches to win the triple jump by almost a foot. Along with teammate Ashley Paprocki's sixth-place finish, Scotus went from fifth place to second and totaled 58 points, two in front of a three-way tie for third. Holdrege ran away with the team championship as its scored 88.5 points.

The Scotus boys finished 10th with 22 points, while Hastings and Ogallala tied for the team title with 75.5 points.

Scotus girls coach Janet Tooley said they received solid contributions from the distance corps and hurdlers for a good start to their season.

“We still have a lot of questions to answer,” Tooley said. “But it is a better start than we had anticipated overall.”

Schumacher also placed fifth in the high jump, while Paprocki added a silver medal in the 200 meter dash with a time of 29.19 seconds.

Jaisa Gutierrez also earned runner-up honors as she finished the mile in 6 minutes, 11.44 seconds. Emily Jarecki was three second and two spots behind her.

Freshman Monica Boeding picked up two medals by way of fifth-place finishes in the 55 meter dash and the long jump. Kellie Korth also was a double medalist by coming in fourth in the 400 and fifth in the 55 hurdles.

Fourth-place medalists for Scotus included Tammie Kozak (200), Jen Fischer (3,200) and Kara Bogus (long jump).

Also the 3,200 relay team of Gutierrez, Jarecki, Sara Baer and Tiffany Wieser placed fifth, while Cassandra Spulak, Katelyn Klassen, Bogus and Andrea Odbert finished sixth in the 1,600 relay.

The Scotus boys were led by a pair of second-place finishes. Brent Albracht was the runner-up in the pole vault by clearing 11-6. In the 55 meter dash, Jordan Janda crossed the finish line in 6.84 seconds for a silver.

The remainder of the Shamrocks' points came via three fifth-place medals from Lance Schmidt (mile), Kyle Benesch (3,200) and Thomas Beller (triple jump).

The boys' 3,200 relay team would have finished in fourth place, but it was disqualified for members wearing jewelry during the race.

Scotus boys coach Jeff Ohnoutka summarized the day as average.

“We have some guys who were unable to be in a lot of events because of injury, so that slowed us down,” he said. “Our inexperience as a team probably came into play also. But I think we found out some things today and look forward to our next meet at (Nebraska) Wesleyan on Tuesday.”

UNK INVITATIONAL

Girls Team Standings

n 1. Holdrege 88.5, 2. Scotus Central Catholic 58, 3t. Lexington 56, 3t. Adams Central 56, 3t. Gothenburg 56, 6. Ogallala 31.5, 7. Aurora 30, 8. Cozad 24, 9. McCook 17, 10. Hastings 6, 11. Minden 6.

Boys Team Standings

n 1t. Hastings 73.5, 1t. Ogallala 73.5, 3. Gothenburg 50.5, 4. McCook 42, 5. Adams Central 41, 6. Scottsbluff 32, 7. Lexington 30, 8t. Aurora 24, 8t. Cozad 24, 10. Scotus Central Catholic 22, 11. Minden 18.5, 12. Holdrege 3.