BISON TRACK RECORDS BROKEN

  Both the boys and girls track teams were able to post new records on the Bison track charts last spring.  For the girls, McCook set a new school record in the 1,600 relay, not once but twice. They broke the old record at a track meet in April, and then went on to better that time at the state track meet in May. Molly Sughroue, Kelsea Geshwentner, Emilyne Nichols and Jessa Sughroue are at the top of the leader board in that event with a time of 4 minutes, 2,059.seconds

Senior Kyle Craw rewrote the Bison boys pole vault school record twice in a span of 72 hours to earn the title of best vaulter in MHS history, at least so far. He cleared the bar at 14 feet, 4 ½ inches at the Dutch Zorn Invite in Gothenburg – a half inch higher than the McCook school record set by Trent Lyons ’03 in 2004. Three days later Craw went over the bar set at 14 feet, 6 inches at a meet held in Lexington.

Congrats to Kyle, Molly, Kelsea, Emilyne, and Jessa for setting new Bison track records.  They give future MHS tracksters lofty goals at which to aim.

  Color Day was held in February and the 2011 Color Day King and Queen were Grant Wilcox and Bonnie Dominguez.  First attendants were Connor Larson and Laura Brooks while Brad Baumbach and Elise Polly served as second attendants.

McCook sent four wrestlers to the Class B state wrestling meet.  Junior Skyler Kalinski survived a bout with the flu bug earlier in the week to win third place at 145 pounds.  Two Bison seniors, Keldon Osterman and Rusty Sullivant, did not place in the top six of their respective weight divisions, but both won matches at state to end their prep wrestling careers. Sullivant won two straight matches and came within one win of earning a medal at 152 pounds. Sophomore Clayton Korus lost both his matches at 119 pounds, but he got another state tournament under his belt that will hopefully pay big dividends the next two seasons.

The Bison girls tennis team qualified for state in all four singles and doubles divisions.  Despite playing well, the Bison managed to win just one match in the first two rounds of tournament play and finished in tenth place.  In #1 singles, Brooklynn Trew (6th seed) defeated her first-round opponent but lost in the quarterfinals.

The boys track squad finished third at the state track meet, their best finish since being runners-up in 2006.  Matt Chitwood, a junior, claimed an individual Class B gold medal, winning the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 9 inches.  Austin Cherry ran the second-fastest 800 in McCook school history at the meet with a time of 1:56.194, which gave him a second place finish.  He just missed the school record of 1:55.38 set by his older brother, Josh Cherry ‘07 at the 2006 state meet.  Senior Kyle Craw cleared 14 feet, 10 inches in the pole vault event to place third.  The 1600 relay team of Cody Wudtke, Matt Chitwood, Brad Baumbach and Austin Cherry finished fourth with a season-best time of 3:26.343.  Sophomore Trevor Pate turned in one of the best 1,600-meter run times in Bison history.  He placed fifth with a time of 4 minutes, 32.536 seconds.

The highlight for the girls track team at state had to be the girls 1,600-meter relay quarter of Kelsea Geschwentner, Emilyne Nichols, Jessa Sughroue and Molly Sughroue.  They came in first place with a school-record run time of 4 minutes, 2.059 seconds, bettering the school record the same foursome set earlier in the spring.  The McCook girls squad has now won state titles in the 1,600 relay four straight years.  The same group ran the 3,200-meter relay team and came in second to Seward.  Both teams broke the state meet record, and McCook’s time of 9:29.126 was just 12 hundredths of a second behind Seward’s.

It’s time to hang up another team championship banner in the gym, as the 2011 boys state golf tournament was won by McCook. MHS has now won eight Class B state titles since 1990, and this year was the first since back-to-back state championships in 2003-04.  Senior Ben Vetrovsky led McCook and tied for fourth in individual standings.  Sophomore Sean Backer tied for 10th.

Five MHS band students participated in the UNK Honor Band Clinic.  They had to audition against more than 1,000 top band students from around the state to win a position.  McCook students attending were Phillip Clay on the French horn, Amber Hilker on the trombone, Erin Premer on the baritone sax, and Nate Priebe on the snare drums.

Prior to the Class of 2011’s graduation ceremony on May 15, Pam Wolford, MHS senior English instructor, was awarded the Allen Strunk McCook Area Educator of the Year Award.  120 seniors walked across the stage to receive their diplomas.  The winners of the Bison Award were Beth Peck and Wyatt Kain.  Peck also received an award for having straight A’s for her entire high school career, the only student to receive this award.

by Diane Wilson  Lyons ‘76