Three Antelope County Runners Medal In O'Neill Invite

9/14/2018

Three Antelope County runners broke their school's course records to place in the fiercely-competitive O'Neill Cross Country Invite on Friday afternoon.

Emma Bixler sprinted her way across the finish line in 21:34 for a fourth place medal and a new course record for Neligh-Oakdale. The previous girls record at the O'Neill Invite was 21:53.

In the boys race, Cole Belitz placed 5th in a time of 17:55, crushing the former Neligh-Oakdale record at that course, which was 19:00. Sophomore Hunter Bennett of Elkhorn Valley broke his school's course record by 37 seconds, running a time of 18:00 for sixth place.

The invitational looked like a repeat of the state meet with last year's Class D champion, Rylee Rice of Ainsworth, winning the girls race, and the 2017 state runner up, Ben Arens of Ainsworth, winning the boys race. Arens also set a new course record for the O'Neill Invite with his time of 16:35.

Neligh-Oakdale Coach Rick Eickholt said Emma and Cole's times were both "really impressive."

"Especially when you look at the competition they were running against and the people that finished in front of them, you had state champions, you had state medalists, and those were the only people that were in front of us in both the boys and girls races," Eickholt said.

The girls race featured 58 runners from 14 schools. Neligh-Oakdale's Hailey Bixler placed 37th in a time of 28:32

There were 103 runners in the boys race. Rounding out the seventh-place Neligh-Oakdale team were 38. Christian Carothers, 21:04; 45. Ashton Higgins, 21:38; 54. Griffin Claussen, 22:22; 58. Cameron Wilkinson, 22:30; 60. Isaias Juarez, 22:47; and junior varsity runners 24. Logan McConnell, 25:43; 28. Jose Luna, 26:26 and 29. Thomas Johnson, 26:50.

Elkhorn Valley finished 9th and their team's other placings were 46. Damian Smith, 21:49; 47. Walter Furstenau, 21:57; 50. Reed Bennett, 22:01; 51. Colton Rystrom, 22:05; 55. Brandon Evans, 22:23; and JV runners Dylan Wright, 24:21 and 22. Conner Klein, 25:37.

The Warrior and Falcon cross country teams will both travel to Albion next Friday for the Boone Central Invitational.