Warriors Sweep NVC Individual Titles, Four Earn Medals

Two races, two champions.

Neligh-Oakdale was the second school in Niobrara Valley Conference history to ever sweep the individual titles when Emma Bixler and Cole Belitz both won their races at Bassett on Friday afternoon. In addition, two others picked up medals, boosting the Warriors to four total All-Conference honors.

Bixler started off the Warriors' winning ways in the girls race, finishing first with a time of 21:12, an impressive 39 seconds faster than the second place runner. Sister and teammate, Hailey Bixler, earned 14th in a time of 26:38 to earn a conference medal as well. Sydney Olson finished 19th in 30:04.

Belitz kept the championship streak alive, winning the boys race in 17:54. He topped the field of 52 NVC runners. Neligh-Oakdale's Griffin Claussen earned 10th place in a time of 19:21 to pick up the final conference medal for the Warriors. Rounding out the team were Christian Carothers in 23rd (21:01), Ashton Higgins 25th (21:07), Thomas Johnson 30th (21:44), Cameron Wilkinson 31st (21:46), Jose Luna 33rd (22:06), Isaias Juarez 35th (22:14), Logan McConnell 44th (23:26) and Parker Tinsley 52nd (31:37).

"Emma and Cole competed very well, but I really didn't expect anything different out of them, they have been at the top of their game all year long," Coach Rick Eickholt said. "Hopefully, we are going to continue that into the next two weeks. We did get other individuals that gained all-conference honors. We got Griffin who made top 10 for the boys and Hailey made top 15 for the girls, so we had four All-Conference runners. I really, really was hoping that we might be able to bump up a few positions with a few of our boys, but it didn't happen today. I think we ran well, the other competitors just ran a little bit better."

Neligh-Oakdale will travel to Norfolk for districts next Thursday. The girls race is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. at Skyview Lake.