A reality of being a high school athlete in Nebraska is that competing in spring sports will mean dealing with unfavorable weather conditions. A great way to end a string of warm days is by scheduling a track meet. Eight schools battled wind and drizzle with the Malcolm girls claiming the team title and the Malcolm boys placing second at the April 7 Malcolm Invite.
“A day like that really comes down to mental toughness,” Malcolm head coach Dustin Tobey said. “Every team has to deal with the same weather, so it’s a matter of how much you’re going to let it bother you.
“I feel like our kids typically handle it as well as any team. They don’t complain about it, they just deal with it.”
The Malcolm girls narrowly defeated Centennial. The Clippers scored 115.5 points while the Broncos had 109. While there were no dominating performances among the Malcolm girls, there were several events in which multiple girls added to the team total.
Cora Schweitzer earned her first career gold in discus with a throw of 97-2. The junior had not touched a discus before this spring and has medaled in both meets this season.
“She wanted to give it a try and we needed throwers,” Tobey said. “What she’s doing isn’t easy as she does hurdles. There’s not much in common with those workouts.
“She splits up her week working on the two events every other day. It takes a lot of dedication to do that, but she’s willing to put in the work necessary to help her team.”
Kiley Elkins had a big day as she earned three medals. The junior who transferred from Raymond Central after her freshman year finished first in the 100-meter hurdles, second in the high jump and third in the 300-meter hurdles.
“Since we didn’t have a track season last year, Kiley was a bit of a mystery to us,” Tobey said. “She’s very athletic and is definitely one of our better possibilities to be a state qualifier this year.”
The Clippers’ other gold medal performances came from Katie Lewis with a pole vault of 7-6 and the 3,200-meter relay team of Reagan Wondercheck, Addy Hanson, Ashlynn Sehi and Jospehine Holliday. Holliday also took the top spot in the 800-meter run with a photo-finish win over Centennial’s Daylee Dey.
“Jo is helping us a ton this year,” Tobey said. “I know Dey was a state qualifier in the 800 two years ago, so that’s a big win.”
The Wilber-Clatonia boys ran away with the team title as the Wolverines scored 184 points. Malcolm scored 118.
Dillon Beach led the Clippers with a pair of gold medal performances. The senior broke the tape in the 400-meter dash in 56.18 seconds and joined Colby Sizemore, Antonio Sims and Katon Thomas to win the 4x100-meter relay. Beach and Sizemore were joined by Gavin Zoucha and Luke Walters on the second-place 1,600-meter relay team.
Thomas, who is coming off a broken ankle that ended his football season, also turned in a pair of silver medal performances in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
“We’re getting points from a lot of place on our boys’ team,” Tobey said. “We’ve got a lot of gritty kids that work hard in practice and go out and lay it on the line in these races.
“We knew Wilber-Clatonia would be really good. To go out and score well over 100 points on a bad weather day against some good athletes, and finish second, I’ll take it.”
The Clippers were scheduled to compete in the Yutan Invite April 13.
