Brent McCown/Tribune
Minden's Lindsey Sitorius (left) and St. Cecilia's Audrey Gaspers clear the last hurdle in the girls' 100 meter hurdles Thursday at the District B-5 track meet in Lexington.

St. Cecilia girls win district track title
Vince Kuppig
vkuppig@hastingstribune.com

LEXINGTON — Winning a district title is nothing new to the St. Cecilia girls track and field team.
But doing it in Class B, as the smallest school in its district and the second smallest in the entire class, is a new experience.
“It was a nice surprise for our kids,” veteran St. Cecilia girls coach Alan VanCura said following his team’s Class B, District 5 title Thursday evening. “A lot of times when we’ve competed in B, we’ve done OK but really never contended for a team title. That’s what makes this one special.”
St. Cecilia’s district title, its second straight after winning in Class C last year, came down to the wire on a rainy and chilly day at Lexington High School.
With only two points separating the top three teams heading into the final event, St. Cecilia likely needed to win the 1,600-meter relay to have a shot at claiming the district title.
It didn’t look good early, but freshman standout sprinter Abby Jackson passed Broken Bow — one of the three teams battling for the team title — on the final turn of the final leg to give St. Cecilia the win in the relay and the district title. Broken Bow, which finished third in the relay, tied with Holdrege for second in the team standings with 86 points each as each finished four points behind the Hawkettes.
Thanks to a late win in discus, Holdrege held a two-point lead over Broken Bow and St. Cecilia going into the final event. The Dusters ended up placing fourth in the 1,600 relay. Broken Bow had a faster time on the season than St. Cecilia going into the final event, but the Hawkettes’ team of Audrey Gaspers, Morgan Dubas, Anne Boyd and Jackson cut 1.6 seconds off its time coming into the meet.
“We were shocked,” Gaspers said of winning the 1,600 relay. “Coming in with the time that we had, we knew that we’d have to really pull it off.”
To read more, see Friday's Hastings Tribune or the Tribune's e-edition.

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