2014 Nebraska high school track and field state meet roundup

The Papillion-LaVista boys and Omaha North girls track and field teams fell short in the Class A team championships Saturday at the Nebraska state track and field meet held at Omaha Burke Stadium.

But when adding up the points in the grand champion standings, which takes into consideration the top times, heights and distances regardless of class, the Monarchs and the Vikings are the chart toppers.

Papillion-LaVista fell short of Kearney's Class A winning point total, 83-77, and Lincoln Southwest came out on top of North, 75-56, in the girls big class standings. The Monarchs finished ahead of Millard West (Omaha) 63 1/2-56, in the grand championship, while Kearney dropped to third place with 50 points. North edged both Lincoln Southwest and Bellevue West 42-41 1/2 in the girls grand championship.

First clean sweep in more than a century

Kenzo Cotton of Papillion-LaVista won both the 200- and 400-meter races and ran a leg on each of the 400- and 1,600-meter relays to put his stamp on 33 points for the Monarchs. In the process, the Arkansas recruit became the first male athlete in 107 years to win the same event four times at the state meet.



Cotton reached the tape in 21.91 seconds to edge Kearney's Tyler Gillen, winning the 200 for the fourth time Saturday. As a sophomore, Cotton raced to his fastest 200 time at the state track meet, blazing to a 21.304.

Cotton won the 400 in the first year he ran the race at the state meet, breaking the tape at 47.66, almost a second and a half ahead of Omaha North's Fonta Jones.

As was expected, Bellevue West's Chloe Akin-Otiko, the Nebraska state record holder in 100, flirted with breaking the all-class state meet record Saturday. Needing to slide in under 11.90-seconds to break Breunna McCarty's 2011 mark, Akin-Otiko came to the tape in 11.91.

The sophomore did, however, get the Class A state meet record in 200 by burning to the tape in 24.29. By winning Class A and All-Class gold in the long jump and in the 100 and 200, Akin-Otiko played a rather large role in scoring 34 of the Thunderbird girls' 50 points, helping Bellevue West net a third place tie with Omaha Central in the team standings.

The Thunderbird speedster, who leaped 18 feet, 8 1/2 inches in the long jump, also ran the second leg of the Thunderbird fifth-place 400 relay, which came in at 49.23 seconds. Morgan Hanson, Marissa Pope and Scarlett Hill took their turn carrying the baton in the relay.

"I wanted to get this record, so I achieved one of my goals," Akin-Otiko told the Lincoln Journal Star after breaking the 200 mark following Saturday's events. "I did my best, so I'm happy. Around the 200, things started getting a little warm, but I run better when it's hot, so it was a good thing."



Other record breakers

* Freeman (Adams) athlete Derek Zimmerman grabbed the Class C state and Class C state meet records in the triple jump for his own when he hit the sand with a leap of 48-9.

* Tyler Loontjer, of Fillmore Central (Geneva), soared to new heights in the Class C boys pole vault, winning the event with a leap of 16-2 1/2 and breaking the Class C state, Class C state meet and the All-Class state meet records in the process.

* Hitchcock County (Trenton) runner Austin Blume made sure he won gold in the 800 by outdistancing the second section with a Class D state meet record of 1:56.83.

* Karlye Cygan, of Lincoln Southwest, vaulted her way to Class A gold in the pole vault with a height of 12-4, netting the Class A state meet record in the process.

* Julianna Burr of Holdrege blurred her way to a Class B state meet record in the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.81.



* The Lincoln East girls 3,200-meter relay team, consisting of Rachel Dweikat, Alana Sesow, Morgan Applegarth and Alexis Altmaier, took top honors with an All-Class state, All-Class state meet, Class A state and Class A state meet record of 9:18.36.

* Lindsy Siegel, of Ansley/Litchfield, tied former Harvard high jumper Amanda Owen's 2003 Class D state record and reestablished the Class D state meet record with her leap of 5-8.

* Bruning-Davenport/Shickley pole-vaulter Catherine Mick reestablished the Class D state and Class D state meet record in her event by clearing the bar at 11-1/2.

Pole-vault domination

Mick hasn't skipped a beat since taking the pole-vaulting baton from her sister Cynthia, who won titles from 2010-12. Having won back-to-back golds in the event already, Mick has stretched her family's domination of the event to five years. Now, she is in the running to win more gold than her older sister.

Triple winners

Besides Akin-Otiko, four other athletes ran, threw and leaped their way to three gold medals in their respective classes.



* Jordan Flemington staked Millard West to a third-place finish in the boys team standings by winning the 110 (14.33) and 300 hurdles (38.17) and running the anchor leg on the Class A champion 1,600 relay team (3:18.92).

* Erin Lee paced York to a Class B runner-up finish after winning the girls 1,600 (5:12.53) and 3,200 (11:14.41), and ran the anchor leg on the winning 1,600 relay (4:02.95). Northwest (Grand Island) edged York 52-51 for top honors in the girls team standings.

* The Arlington boys took advantage of the three-gold medal performance of Tyler Simpson to finish with 35 points and in fifth place in the Class C team standings. Simpson took home top honors in the 200 (22.10) and the 400 (49.63), and ran a leg on the winning 1,600 relay (3:30.13).

* Austin Hegge scored enough points by himself to guide Wausa to a fourth-place finish. Hegge won the 100 (11.34), 200 (22.81) and the long jump (21-4 3/4), as the Vikings finished with 38 points.

Kearney wins another

Kearney did it again. The Bearcats earned points in unsuspecting events and won the school's 16th boys team title since 1994, including the last three. Kearney won titles from 1994-2004 before winning championships again in 2008 and 2009. Since the Bearcats began their run, only Omaha North (2006) and Omaha Central (2007, 2010 and 2011) have made their way into the Class A team winner's circle



Top 5 Team Standings

Class A Boys
Kearney 83
Papillion-LaVista 77
Millard West 76
Millard North 55
Omaha Creighton Prep 48

Class B Boys
Cozad 69
Sidney 45 1/2
Alliance 42
Scottsbluff 35
Holdrege 31
York 31

Class C Boys
Thayer Central 41
Nebraska Christian 39
Ainsworth 37
Freeman 36
Arlington 35

Class D Boys
Falls City Sacred Heart 49 1/2
Sterling 44
Hartington 40
Wausa 38
Twin Loup 28

Class A Girls
Lincoln Southwest 75
Omaha North 56
Omaha Central 50
Bellevue West 50
Millard North 49

Class B Girls
Northwest 52
York 51
Holdrege 44
McCook 44
Gretna 36

Class C Girls
Crofton 47
Kearney Catholic 34
North Bend 33
Bayard 32
Ord 31

Class D Girls
St. Mary's 65
Bruning-Davenport/Shickley 60 1/2
Humphrey St. Francis 42
Friend 35
Pawnee City 31



Girls Special Olympics 100-Meter Dash
Skylar Simmonds, Elkhorn 16.29
Jadyn Tomjack, West Omaha Warriors 16.93
Krystal Colon, OPS 17.84
Alexis Schweitzer, Lincoln Shooting 18.13
Elisha Segura, West Point 20.46
Lea Selvey, Minatare 20.83
Kiera Horton, Elkhorn 27.35

Boys Special Olympics 100-Meter Dash
Ramon Chavez, Scottsbluff 13.89
Jerrick Schlosser-Ross, Minatare 15.33
BJ Gould, Norris 15.39
Kendrick Luebbert, West Point 16.43
Joshua Nelson, Fremont 16.91
Preston Bazemore, Scottsbluff 17.22
Adam Painter, Fremont 17.70
Andrew Lucas, Papillion-LaVista 18.32
Andrew Gorecki, Central City Diggin Dolphins 19.24
Liam Bishop, Fremont 20.31

Some of the notes for this story were found in the Omaha World Herald and the Lincoln Journal Star.