Warrior Girls, Boys Finish Fifth At NVC Track Meet Saturday

The Neligh-Oakdale boys and girls teams both finished in fifth place in the fiercely-competitive NVC track meet in Atkinson on Saturday.

For the Warrior boys, Jordan Chelle was crowned the conference champion in the pole vault. Chelle cleared 11’6” for first place in the event. His vault moves him into a tie for 7th on the school’s all-time top 10 list.

"The juices were flowing at Saturday’s conference track meet (a pun any N-O past or present track athlete will understand)," Coach Rick Eickholt said. 

He said "maybe the most impressive performance of the day" was the 3200 meter relay (Michael Peinke, Marquis Granville, Tyson Belitz, Grant White), entering the race seeded with the 8th fastest time. 

"The group cut off nearly 30 seconds from their previous best to capture the silver medal," Eickholt said. "All four members had their best relay splits of the season." 

Narrowly edged out for conference championships were Dylan Kaup and Zack Miller, who also won silver medals in the discus and high jump, respectively. 

Ben Lingenfelter broke his own freshman record in the shot put by tossing the shot 43’ 10” which earned him third place and also moved him into a tie for 7th on the all-time school’s top 10 list. Lingenfelter was also third in the discus. 

The final third place medals went the 400 meter relay (Grant White, Alex Orozco, Zach Miller, Colby Wilkinson).

"Colby Wilkinson ran a great anchor leg, moving the team up four spots to the third place finish," he said. The relay team went into the race seeded 8th.

"Even though we didn’t have the entire team with us (Saturday conflicts)," Eickholt said. "I feel that everyone here did a great job of stepping up. We had talked about needing to try and score more points on the track and our runners really did a nice job of stepping up as we scored in all but two of the running events we entered." 

Boys medal winners (personal bests marked *):
Jordan Chelle:* 1st pole vault
Ben Lingenfelter: *3rd discus, *3rd shot put
Dylan Kaup: *2nd discus
Zach Miller: 2nd high jump, *7th 200 m dash
Colby Wilikinson: 4th 100m dash, 5th 200 m dash
Michale Peinke: *8th 300 m IMH, 8th 1600m run
Will Paul: *8th pole vault
Hunter McWhorter: *8th high jump
3200m relay: *2nd (Michael Peinke, Marquis Granville, Tyson Belitz, Grant White
400 m relay: *3rd (Grant White , Alex Orozco, Zach Miller, Colby Wilkinson)
1600m relay: *4th (Grant White, Marquis Granville, Colby Wilkinson, Zach Miller)
Other Personal bests: Damon Arehart discus, Hunter McWhorter 400m dash, Tyson Belitz 400m dash

Girls Medalists:
Shot put: 2. Hayley Snodgrass, 35-05.25
Discus: 3. Hayley Snodgrass, 100-02
Long jump: 5. Kayla Wright, 14-10.25
4x800: 4. Neligh-Oakdale 'A' 11:06.40 1) Grossrode, Kasi 2) Spiger, Bea 3) Orozco, Claudia 4) Chance, Jayda
100 meter hurdles: 4. Kayla Wright, 17.40
100 meter dash: 4. Alexis Jensen,13.30
300 meter hurdles: 4. Kayla Wright, 51.30 
200 meter dash: 5. Alexis Jensen, 27.60
1600 meter run: 3. Claudia Orozco, 5:57.60
4x100 meter relay: 6. Neligh-Oakdale 'A' 55.60 2 1) Vleck, Chase 2) Wright, Kayla 3) Grossrode, Kasi 4) Jensen, Alexis 
4x400 meter relay: 6. Neligh-Oakdale 'A' 4:49.90 1) Lueders, Ryanne 2) Vleck, Chase 3) Grossrode, Kasi 4) Jensen, Alexis

Alexis Jensen darts out of the blocks in the 200 meter dash finals.

Claudia Orozco battles for position in the 1600 meter run.

(l-r) Colby Wilkinson and Zach Miller compete in the 200 meter dash finals.

Tyson Belitz hands off the baton to Ben Lingenfelter in the freshman 4x100 relay.