STORM TWILIGHT TRACK & FIELD INVITE: Leyton boys, girls win titles

CHAPPELL – Leyton High School swept both the boys' and girls' team events at the annual Storm Twilight Invite on Tuesday in what was a intimate gathering of four Class D schools.

The Warriors gathered 189 points to take the boys' competition while Garden County (136), South Platte (84) and Creek Valley (16) completed the scoring. In the girls' meet, the Warriors piled up 169 points to top Creek Valley and South Platte which tied for second at 133. Garden County picked up 46 points.

The Warriors' Jessica Houk was one of the stars of the day as she finished first in all four events of her events. Meanwhile, host Creek Valley showed particular strength in the girls' field events that included a sweep of the throwing events.

Houk's day included wins in the 100, 200 and long jump besides running a leg on the winning 4x100 relay team. She also scored two personal bests on the day.

Houk's partners in the relay win were Abbe Draper, Taylor Berner and Shaela Jenkins. Draper, Jenkins and Berner swept the top three spots in the 100-meter hurdles as well.

"I'm not really happy about my 100 even though I (ran a personal best)," said Houk, suggesting her time may have been influenced by the wind. "I need to put in some hard work and that should help me get better."

While a strong cross wind may have been a slight help in the 100, it was a hinderance in the long jump. Still, Houk scored another personal best at 14 feet, 2 inches.

"The wind in the long jump was a problem because it was blowing in our face," Houk said.

The Creek Valley girls were supported by a good day in the field with three event wins. Hannah Schievelbein won the discus while teammate Jessie Straber came in fifth. Leyton's Dani McKay wound up in third. In the shot put, the Storm's Allie Blackwelder topped Schievelbein by just over a foot to take the prize there. McKay's toss earned her a fourth place finish.

Straber won the Storm's third field event by capturing the high jump while teammate Steffanie Mitchell was two places back in third. Leyton's Abbe Draper was just behind Mitchell in fourth. Straber was also third in the triple jump and fifth in the discus.

"Of course it's nice to win, but I wasn't happy with the high jump personally," said Straber of her 4-11 effort. "I get five feet and higher every day in practice but I can't seem to get myself to do it in a meet. I don't know how that is but I'll just have to figure it out."

While the Storm didn't win the pole vault, it swept the next three spots. Payje Misegadis and Natalie Christofferson finished second and third after jumping the same height, 7-6. Freshman Sami Schmid earned a personal best to take fourth place. Later Schmid won the 1,600 meters with the help of a strong stretch run.

"I like to stay behind the leaders, especially if it's really windy like today," Schmid said. "It's not just that they break the wind for me, but it also gives me an easier pace to run at.

"In the pole vault, I've been working hard in practice because my coach wants me to get my feet higher, and that helped me a lot today," Schmid added.

For the Creek Valley boys, William Payton proved a steady performer in the shot put with a runner-up finish. Josh Schievelbein also scored for the Storm in the shot at fifth. Nash Leef and Cody Simmons were the only other Storm boys to score for Creek Valley. Leef was fifth in the mile and sixth in the two mile while Simmons was fifth in the 200 meters and sixth in the 100.

The Warriors' boys had a solid day in the field with Jake Ernest throwing a personal best in the shot put to win by a wide margin. Ernest had been coming off a football injury, and this was just the second event in which he was released to go all out.

"At Bayard I was only allowed to power throw and this is the second week I've been able to do the full glide," Ernest said. "It felt pretty good today."

Kenny Ernerst also scored 10 points with his win in the high jump while teammates Drew Brenner (second) and Zach Hellie (fourth) helped pile up the points for the Warriors in the event. Also in the field, Cody McKay collected a pair of second-place finishes in the long and triple jumps.

On the track, Leyton's Kordell Maestas was third in both the 100 and 200 meters with Max Suess foruth in the 400. In the longer distances, James Rushman was a comfortable winner of the 800 meters. Rushman's teammates, Triston Hume-Gartner and Aaron Schrotberger were third and fourth respectively.

Rhett Dye won the 1,600 meters by more than five seconds while he was runner-up in the 3,200 meters. Kenny Ernest won the 300-meter hurdles while running unopposed.

Among the other strong performances from the Leyton girls, three-time state qualifier Kaitlyn Berner had winning effort in the triple jump and 800 meters. Her teammates Kristine Barnett and Hope Dykman finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the triple jump.

The Storm are scheduled to hit the track again next Tuesday when they travel to Sutherland. Leyton will visit Morrill on April 24.