OGALLALA - The Sidney Red Raider and Lady Raider track and field teams swept their way to District Championships Thursday at the B-6 District Meet in Ogallala. The Sidney boys entered the district as the team to beat, and lived up to that in the morning field events. Jacob Dowse and Sawyer Dickman took the two top spots in the High Jump while Cam Leeling was winning the Long Jump. When the dust settled, the Sidney boys had set 6 new personal records and edged out McCook by three points for the title.

As good a day as the boys had on Thursday, the Lady Raiders might have had a better one. The Sidney girls won 7 events and set 8 new personal records on the way to outdistancing second place McCook 100.5 to 91. Karsyn Leeling got the girls day started by setting new personal bests in winning both the High Jump (5’8¼”) and Long Jump (17’½”).

Karly Sylvester has won the Shot Put and Discus at every meet that she competed in this season. The senior continued to dominate those events at the B-6 District Track Meet in Ogallala on Thursday. Once again Sylvester won both events and extended her personal bests in each in the process. She added over a foot to her Shot Put mark with a toss of 43’8”. Sylvester increased her Discus mark by 3’, throwing for 135’11”.

Sylvester, a University of Nebraska–Kearney track recruit, is not the only Lady Raider thrower that will be competing at the collegiate level season. Reagan Biesecker and Delanie Namuth have both signed letters-of-Intent to compete next year at the next level.

Biesecker, who will be throwing for the Bulldogs of Concordia University next season, added to the Lady Raider scoring with a fifth-place finish in the Shot Put, Her toss of 36'4” was a little shy of her personal best of 37’3” from early April in Mitchell. Biesecker chose Concordia over CSU-Pueblo and Nebraska Wesleyan because she says “the coaches and the atmosphere was amazing and I just felt like I was at home.”

Namuth, a York College recruit, struggled in the Discus in breezy conditions on Thursday, throwing just 72’1”, a far cry from her season high of 102’5½” at the Best in the West meet in April or her personal best of 105’6” from last season. Namuth will now focus on throwing for the Panthers next season.  Delanie says she will be working on all the throw events and might even give the Javelin a try.

Sidney qualified 8 boys in 7 events and 6 girls in 10 events for next week’s Nebraska State Track and Field Championships at Omaha’s Burke High School.

Boys State Qualifiers:
Mitchell Deer: 400 Meters, 4x800 Relay
Daniel Bashtovoi: 800 Meters, 1600 Meters, 4x800 Relay
Cameron Brauer: 1600 Meters, 4x800 Relay
Connor Hartzler: 300M Hurdles
Treyson Johnstone: 4x800 Relay
Jacob Dowse: High Jump
Sawyer Dickman: High Jump
Cameron Leeling: Long Jump

Girls State Qualifiers:
Talissa Tanquary: 400 Meters, 800 Meters
Morgan Jaggers: 1600 Meters
Chloe Ahrens: 100M Hurdles, 300M Hurdles
Karly Sylvester: Shot Put, Discus
Karsyn Leeling: High Jump, Long Jump
Rheagen Stanley: Pole Vault