The Boone Central/Newman Grove Cardinals capped a successful season with stellar efforts in the 2015 Nebraska State Track & Field Championships Friday and Saturday at Omaha Burke Stadium.
Reaching the state meet is the dream of every track and field athlete at the beginning of a season. Once in Omaha, that dream extends to winning a medal, possibly even gold.
While gold eluded the Cardinals in 2015, junior Sheldon Beierman and senior Catherine Weeder each captured three medals, while seniors Dana Pelster and Olivia Slizoski and junior Taylor Starman secured one each.
Those performances were good for 22.330 team points, earning Boone Central/Newman Grove a ninth place standing in Class B.
All very pleasing to Cardinal Coach Kris Pestel.
“Breaking into the top ten in Class B team scoring took great effort and we’re proud of the kids and their accomplishments!” Pestel praised. “The coaching staff is extremely pleased with the performances at state. We had five season-bests and two school records set in Omaha!”
Beierman broke her Boone Central mark in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 46.79 and the 4×400 meter relay quartet of Weeder, Pelster, Starman and Beierman lowered the BC record they had set in district competition to 4:05.12.
“All of our kids went into the state meet with the confidence and the desire to do well, and they did,” Pestel added. “Whether we won medals or not, our kids competed very well and left everything they had in Omaha.”
Beierman just missed the ultimate gold medal in her best event Saturday. After placing second in her 100 meter high hurdle heat race Friday in a time of 15.28, the Cardinal junior came back Saturday with an identical time and runner-up finish in the final to Northwest’s Kayla Brachle (15.13).
Beierman also set her school record in the 300 hurdles (46.79) Friday and ran 46.80 Saturday while finishing third in the final. Ord’s Tori Beran won the event in 45.30.
Weeder won two individual medals in Omaha. She went under one minute in the 400 meter dash for the second time in Friday’s prelims (59.97), placing second in her heat, then posted a 1:00.12 Saturday to place fourth in the final won by Mackenzie Zach of Platteview (57.90). The senior standout cleared 5’ to tie for eighth place in the high jump competition.
Olivia Slizoski pushed to a 47.85 clocking and third place finish in heat one of the 300 meter hurdles, qualiying for Saturday’s final where she placed eighth in 48.77.
BC/NG put an exclamation point on the season in the state meet’s final event, as the 4×400 relay team set their new record and earned sixth-place medals.
Further details & results in Print & Online editions of Albion News
