Sidney cross country team opens season

Sidney High School's cross country team gets into action today, competing in the Gering Invite beginning at 1 p.m.

The meet marks Sidney's re-entry into Class B competition, after qualifying for state in Class C in both the boys and girls divisions last year.

Sidney's boys bring back four runners from that state-qualifying squad and earlier this season Coach Ryan Plummer said he was excited to see what the team will be able to accomplish with their athleticism and experience.

On the girls side, Sidney will be looking to see which runners step up for the Raiders, who have one returning runner, Charlie Brockhaus, returning from last year's team.

Plummer said it is likely there will be some freshman running on the Sidney varsity squad and it will take time to see how they respond to the demand of their roles.

Many of the Raider runners come into the season in good shape, having participated in friendly competition between each other over the summer.

In that summer challenge, runners challenged coaches to meet goals, while team members worked to put as many miles as they could behind them.

Coach Donna Wiedeburg, in an offhand remark, spoke before she thought a lot about it, but found herself committing to running 500 miles through the summer. She made the mark, eclipsing it by four miles.

That set the pace, and Sidney runners responded well, said Wiedeburg. In all, the friendly challenge culminated just before school started, seeing the runners log 4,808.65 miles.

For the school runners, Ryan Aurich led the way with 172.5 miles, while Brockhaus was second in miles run with 161.9. In all, counting coach Wiedeburg, 10 runners logged more than 100 miles.

Also besting the century mark were Will Castner with 154.2, Katie Gilmore with 153.8, Vincent Hernandez, 149, Logan Sherman, 148, Chantel Riggs, 147.3, Kollyn Weimer, 144, and Jolene Oliverius, 133.3.

With today's meet, coaches will get a chance to see how both the summer prep and practice since school began might pay off.