Blair High School sprinter Ethan Baessler snacked on a cookie at the end of the Mike Lehl Invitational at Krantz Field.
Was it a reward for a job well done?
“I guess you could say that,” he said through a smile Thursday night.
Baessler's 200-meter dash school record highlighted the Bears' five event wins on their own track. Senior Nolan Slominski, Reese Beemer, Zac Keeling, Ted Lueders, Caleb Funk and he contributed to the others, too, as BHS finished third in the boys' standings and eighth in the girls' team race.
With the hometown setting, the Bears were motivated to compete.
“(Coach Bryan) Soukup talked to us before, and he said this was a meet we were going to hit hard,” Slominski said. “And, I mean, we did. Ethan set a new school record again.”
In addition to his 10.72-second win in the 100 dash, Baessler topped his own school mark in the 200 for a second gold-medal finish. He clocked in under 22 seconds, finishing in 21.95 — 0.32 faster than second-place Carsen Staehr of Aurora.
“To have it happen so early at my home track meet, it's a blessing and it's so much fun,” Baessler said. “It makes the atmosphere even better.”
Beemer won the girls' 100-meter dash in front of the Krantz Field grandstand as well.
“Amazing as always,” she said to describe the experience.
The junior finished the straightaway sprint in 12.43 seconds, besting runner-up Ellie Shanahan of Omaha Roncalli by 0.32.
In the 200 dash, though, Beemer finished second to Bennington's Kennedy Wade, who finished in 24.88.
“Kennedy Wade, amazing track runner,” the Blair standout said. “I praise her for her 200 times. It was hard keeping up with her today.”
Though they fell short of gold medals as well, Shelton Anderson (third in the triple jump), Chase Cottle (third in the high jump), Greta Galbraith (fourth in the pole vault), Funk (fourth in the 400 dash), Braden McGill (fourth in the shot put) and Dawson Fricke (fourth in the 3,200 run) contributed top-four individual finishes to the Bears' effort Thursday.
Slominski, however, was at the very top of the 800 results at the Mike Lehl Invite. One of the state's best two-lap racers won in 1:58.66 despite trailing going into his second 400 meters. He eventually took the lead and finished strong.
“That last 200, if anyone's close to me, I try and go all-out at the end,” he said.
The BHS senior and Dakota State recruit was arguably the most-excited about his 3,200-meter relay team's victory, though. Keeling, Lueduers, Funk and he finished in 8:05.96 — one of the best times in all of Nebraska this season. Slominski said the Bears may be able to do even better with May's NSAA Championships on the horizon.
“We're just waiting for state, and anything can happen at state,” he said. “We're looking forward to that.”
Next, though, BHS contends for Eastern Midlands Conference gold at Waverly High School. The meet begins at 1:30 p.m. today.
MIKE LEHL INVITATIONAL
Thursday at Krantz Field
BOYS
Team standings: Elkhorn North 104, Elkhorn 96, Blair 69, Aurora 67, Omaha Skutt 59, Bennington 42, Elkhorn Mount Michael 36, Seward 25, York 19, Omaha Roncalli 10.
Top-6 Blair Finishers
100-meter dash: 1, Ethan Baessler, 10.72.
200 dash: 1, Baessler, 21.95.
400 dash: 4, Caleb Funk, 52.52.
800 run: 1, Nolan Slominski, 1:58.66.
3,200 run: 4, Dawson Fricke, 10:02.27.
400 relay: 4, BHS (Colin McCabe, Baessler, Ben Holcomb, Zac Keeling), 44.32.
1,600 relay: 6, BHS (McCabe, Keeling, Funk, Ted Lueders), 3:35.11.
3,200 relay: 1, BHS (Keeling, Lueders, Funk, Slominski), 8:05.96.
Triple jump: 3, Shelton Anderson, 40 feet, 10.5 inches.
High jump: 3, Chase Cottle, 5-11.
Shot put: 4, Braden McGill, 49-10.
GIRLS
Team standings: Bennington 117, Elkhorn North 94.5, Seward 84, York 54, Elkhorn 46, Aurora 42, Omaha Skutt 40, Blair 33.5, Omaha Roncalli 16.
Top-6 Blair Finishers
100-meter dash: 1, Reese Beemer, 12.43 seconds.
200 dash: 2, Beemer, 25.77.
1,600 run: 5, Reece Ewoldt, 5:34.9.
1,600 relay: 5, BHS (Schuyler Roewert, Jade Wickwire, Greta Galbraith, Ewoldt), 4:20.17.
3,200 relay: 4, BHS (Audie Keeling, Wickwire, Ewoldt, Lainey Bilau), 10:23.72.
300 hurdles: 5, Schuyler Roewert, 49.79.
High jump: 5, Hailey Roewert, 4 feet, 11 inches.
Pole vault: 4, Galbraith, 9.
UNIFIED
100-meter dash: 1, Atticus Dick, 13.1 seconds. 2, Lincoln Kruse, 13.78. 3, Cooper Sorensen, 13.94. 4, Riley Yanak, 14. 5, Addie Sullivan, 14.3. 6, Brooke Janning, 15.71. 7, Jaden Rogge, 15.79. 8, Blake Jackson, 16.97.
400 relay: 1, BHS (Sorensen, Kruse, Dick, Yanak), 53.71. 2, BHS (Sullivan, Jackson, Janning, Rogge), 1:02.98.
