Sidney boys win conference

As Sidney's Jachob Wiedeburg crossed the finish line, holding off a charging Chadron runner, he gave a gentle fist pump. Though completely exhausted from his effort he seemed to know that he not only ran the race of his life, but helped shutout two Alliance runners in the process.

With a boost from many personal best performances, the Sidney boys track team took back from Chadron High School their first conference title in 44 years on Saturday.

Meanwhile the Raiders girls also had a number of personal records to help them to one of their finest team performances of the season.

The Sidney boys outpointed Alliance 133 to 106 to fill the top two spots. Scottsbluff finished third with 92.

The Mitchell girls proved best with 112 points. Sidney was fourth at 82.

During the mid-day break Raiders Head Coach John Ganser was thinking out loud as to what was needed in order to hold off the Alliance boys. Among the several key events where he felt the Raiders needed a big effort was the mile. He got it.

Not only did Wiedeburg vanquish the two main dangers that threatened the Raiders conference title, he smashed his personal-best effort in the process. His third-place finish added six more points to the Sidney total while Alliance collected no points in the event--despite the Bulldogs' Jeffery Huesman running a time that was several seconds faster than Wiedeburg's previous best.

"I kept telling myself my legs don't hurt nearly as must as they did in the 800 (relay)," said Wiedeburg. "I'm a mental runner. I have to stop thinking so much about the race and just run. Most of all I knew I had to stay ahead to those Alliance runners."

But the mile was just one event in which the Raiders earned a personal best. Because of the lack of outdoor pole vault facilities in Chadron, the meet actually began on Friday in Alliance. The performances of the Raiders pole vaulters on both the boys and girls team helped get Sidney off to a positive early start.

As he did at the Chadron Indoor meet early this season, Lucas Rosenbaum set a new personal and school record. In clearing 14-03, the runner-up, Brady Shimp of Alliance, was well behind with his vault of 12-06.

For Rosenbaum, who competed at the Best of the West meet in Scottsbluff on Thursday, the Friday vault meant three straight days of competition.

"I've never had to compete in track three days in a row before so my legs are a little tired," he acknowledged.

As for his vault, Rosenbaum had not cleared 14 feet since he last set the Raiders mark on March 22. Though he has been a consistent winner of the event all season, Rosenbaum has personal goals in mind as well.

"It's nice to get back over 14," he said. "From here on I just want to try and be consistent and keep moving forward."

The following day Rosenbaum continued to add points to the Sidney total. He finished fourth in the open 400 meters and ran a leg in the Raiders winning 4x100 relay. Rosenbaum also ran a leg in the 4x400 relay in which Sidney finished runners-up. He was joined on the 4x100 by Chance Anglin, Michael Banaszak and Logan Lewis. The 4x400 included Banaszak, Hunter Secrest and Hayden Lienemann.

While Rosenbaum was doing his thing, the Sidney girls also had a big day in the vault. Jami Flores finished second to Alexis Lynn despite both clearing the same height of 8 feet.

Though Flores missed out on a tie breaker for the top spot, her teammates helped the Raiders cause with two more medals.

Jasmine Jallen finished in a tie for fifth with a mark of 7-06 to equal her teammate Jolene Oliverius.

For Oliverius, a freshman, it was a new personal best.

Lewis, another on the list of those that established a personal best in the meet, had an explosive finish in the sprint relay. He also had two individual wins and a second to his credit as the largest point gainer for Sidney on the day.

His meet began with a runner-up in the shot put to his teammate Jake Heeren. The two Raiders have battled all season for shot put titles at every meet. But Tucker Wintholz also joined the party as he finished in fourth in the event.

For Heeren, it took a personal best (52-07) by more than a foot to take down his teammate.

"Logan has been on me all year about doing well," said Heeren. "We get on each other a lot and really help each other."

As for his personal best he said, "I didn't see it coming at all."

Though Lewis finished the shot put a couple of feet short of his personal mark, he found his best stride on the track. He ran huge in the 100 meters with a time of 11.22. If that wasn't enough, he didn't lose a single stride in stretching out to 200 meters.

His time was exactly double at 22.44 for a new personal best.

"I'm starting to peak now and at just the right time," said Lewis with a big smile. "I'm starting to get in shape now and that's thanks to a lot of good coaching and hard work."

When Lewis began the anchor leg in the 4x100, the Raiders were slightly behind. Worse than that they were trailing Alliance - the one other team that had a chance to take the team title. Lewis erased the deficit in short order to help earn the 10 points.

The girls proved just as tough at 100 meters as Sara VonSeggern gave an encore performance of her Best of the West win. She powered through the final meters to win the event in just over 13 seconds.

Like Lewis, she credits her efforts in practice with her coaches.

"I don't really know why I'm running so well now," said VonSeggern. "We work very hard in practice and I guess it's just paying off now. I like that I'm being consistent. If I keep being consistent in my effort I can keep improving."

Beyond the short sprints, the Raiders were also strong in the longer distances. Preslie Allen (2nd) and Kate Brosnan both medaled at 400 meters and picked up valuable points. Allen broke the one-minute barrier (59.39) while Brosnan was just a short distance back in 1:01.67.

At 800 meters Hayden Lienemann again came close to breaking two minutes as he finished third in 2:00.67. The previous week Lienemann broke his previous best by three seconds in another effort that was just a shade over two minutes.

In the girls mile, Mia Hernandez just missed a medal by finishing in seventh while Erin Lindeman took bronze in the two mile.

The Raiders girls, who haven't entered a varsity runner in a hurdle event all season, inserted Abby Heller into the 300. The effort to gain points paid off as Heller finished fourth.

The Raiders also may have discovered their hurdler of the future. Despite taking choppy steps before each hurdle, the sophomore and event rookie finished in a solid 51.88.

Nick Conger was again strong. He finished third in the 110-meter hurdles and fifth in the 300. As usual he picked up points in the high jump as well. The unusual part of his story, however, was that Conger was the runner-up in that event. He has won most of his high jump competitions this season.

Holly showed his performance at Scottsbluff on Thursday was no fluke. He again cleared 6-02 to equal his personal best from two days prior.

"I've been told I'm getting more speed on my approach. Other than that I don't know how I account for the improvement," said Holly. "Maybe I just have to go back to the shoes."

Coach Ganser believes Holly's improvement has to do with him going straight over the bar rather than drifting across it.

In the girls high jump, the Raiders had two finish in the top three. Savanna Rosenbaum cleared the bar at 5-00 to win the event while Heller took third. Heller was able to clear the 4-08 height.

"I felt a lot better today than I have the last couple of weeks," said Rosenbaum. "My approach felt better today. I moved my mark inside so I could make a tighter J and take it closer to the bar."

The Raiders performed well in the discus on both the boys and girls side. Brian Rolls and Wintholz finished third and fourth respectively. For Rolls, his toss of 139-04 was a personal best by more than 10 feet.

On the girls side freshman Annalise Lecher set three new season bests and eventually a personal record in the discus. She finally earned her medal with a throw of 96-02 in the finals. While she threw for 95 feet as an eighth grader, she has been throwing largely in the mid 80s this year.

"I think I'm finally getting all the fundamentals working for me at the same time," said Lecher. "Now that I finally have a new personal best I can start trying to get to 100 feet."

The Raiders next challenge comes on Friday in Bayard at the B-C-D meet. The field events are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Western Conference meet @ Chadron, Alliance

Boys Team Scores

1. Sidney 133

2. Alliance 106

3. Scottsbluff 92

4. Mitchell 89

5. Gering 66

6. Chadron 40

Girls Team Scores

1. Mitchell 112

2. Scottsbluff 98

3. Gering 94

4. Sidney 82

5. Allinace 69

6. Chadron 56