Of the five Fort Calhoun track and field athletes to qualify for the NSAA State Championships, Kaylee Taylor was the lone freshman.
“It's going to be a great experience and I'm very excited to compete,” the Pioneer said Wednesday, the first day of the two-day event at Omaha Burke Stadium.
“I've made goals throughout the year and I've just been always trying to strive to reach them,” Taylor noted. “And I think I've been doing a great job at that throughout the season.”
On Thursday, the ninth-grader capped FCHS' involvement in the Class B meet with her team's best finish. She cleared a personal record 33 feet, 6-5 inches in the triple jump to earn 12th in her state debut.
Bria Bench, Lance Olberding and Ely Olberding, meanwhile, landed top-20 finishes, too. Bench's 13th-place effort in the high jump came alongside teammate Dala Drowne, who finished without a completed leap.
“I was a little nervous just because I was the first one up to go today,” Bench said Thursday. “First jumper.”
The sophomore missed on her first attempt, but crossed over the bar set at 4-11 on the second.
“It felt really good getting over and going to the next height,” she said.
Bench started competing in the high jump as a freshman and “didn't know what I was doing,” she said. Now, though, the Pioneer is more comfortable on the state stage.
The Olberdings, meanwhile, are no strangers to the same platform. The juniors have qualified to compete in Burke Stadium before and had successful cross-country and wrestling this school year.
“We both had goals to come in here and get a medal, and medal in all three sports this year,” Lance said. “But we kind of fell short here.”
Still, the FCHS standouts both set personal records in the 3,200-meter run Wednesday afternoon. Lance was 17th in 10:35.36 and Ely Olberding was 19th in 10:35.7 despite the warm conditions.
“It feels like the track just absorbs all of that sun,” Lance said. “It's pretty hot out there.”
Though they qualified five athletes, coach Mandy Taylor's team fell short of team points in Class B as the Sidney boys and Elkhorn North girls earned team titles. Assistant coach Adolph Shepardson did reveal, however, that the head coach's daughter — Kaylee Taylor — set a new milestone during the meet. She surpassed her mother's own PR in the triple jump with her state effort — a goal she strived to reach.
