Despite the cold and windy weather, the South Loup Bobcats were fast and fierce at their home track meet in Arnold on Thursday.

The boys team finished first out of 17 teams with 82 points - nearly 30 points ahead of the runner-up team. The girls finished third with 50 points, even though they have a handful of athletes injured or coming off an injury including the top three sprinters.

“It’s just going to take some time,” said girls coach Mike Weverka of the injured runners. “The rest of the team have done a great job of picking up the slack.”

Senior Silas Cool and juniors Logan Recoy and Cache Gracey each added more gold medals to their already large collections of hardware from this season. Cool ran away with the 800-meter gold, finishing at 2:09.67, beating his closest opponent by more than four seconds. Gracey again won the 400-meter, this week with a time of 52.18 seconds.

Recoy, a strong distance runner, blew away the competition in the 1600-meters with a time of 5:02.30, a full 11 seconds faster than the runner-up.

The 4x400 relay team, with members Gracey, Recoy, Cool, and Dylan Pandorf snagged the gold with a time of 3:37.96. The 4x800 relay team wiped the track with their opponents - winning by more than 15 seconds in a time of 9:20.45. Members include Cool, Recoy, Trey Connell, and Dawson Mason.

Gracey also set a new personal record in the 200-meter with a time of 23.24 and a third-place finish.

Over in field events, senior thrower Lance Jones set a new personal record in the discus and brought home a silver medal with a distance of 141’2.25”. Jones also finished fourth in shot put with a throw of 41’8”. Rio Remund, who scratched in shot put, finished fifth in the discus with a throw of 126’0.75” Senior thrower Clay Witthuhn also set a new PR in shot put with a distance of 39’9.5” and a seventh place finish.

“We had some help from our freshmen scoring for the first time - Josiah Coleman in pole vault and Crew Witthuhn in 300 hurdles helped our group of athletes,” said boys coach Lane Chesley. “Anytime you win a meet it’s a good day for a team.”

The girls distance runners had a remarkable day with senior Talli Martin finishing second in both the 1600-meter and 3200-meter events. Martin set a new personal record in the 3200, with a time of 12:40.24, less than one second behind the gold medal winner. Ella Cool finished third in the 3200, with a time of 13:29.48.

The girls 4x800 meter relay brought home their sole gold medal of the meet, beating the runners-up by more than 20 seconds, with a time of 11:31.75. The members include Martin, Cool, Ivy Tullis, and Ava Pandorf.

Senior Abby Stallbaumer added a silver medal to her pile in the discus with a throw of 110’7.25”.

“The distance runners are competing very hard, they are tough,” said Weverka. “All four girls are very tough competitors - they always exceed my expectations!”

Multiple Bobcats are ranked in the top 10 in Class C in the state - Gracey ranked third in the 400-meter, and seventh in the 200-meter; Cool is ranked sixth in the

800-meter; the 4x400 relay team is ranked third and the 4x800 team is ranked eighth.

Martin is ranked in both the 1600-meter and 3200-meter, ninth and fourth, respectively.

The Bobcats have an incredibly busy schedule the next week with a rescheduled meet at Hershey on Tuesday (results were not available by press time) and the Burwell Invite on Friday. Next Tuesday they travel to Overton, as well.

Boys results

100-meter prelim - Conner Paulsen, 12.22, 17th.

200-meter - Cache Gracey, 23.24, 3rd (PR); Paulsen,

25.73, 22nd.

400-meter - Gracey, 52.18, 1st; Dylan Pandorf, 56.94,

9th.

800-meter - Silas Cool, 2:09.67, 1st.

1600-meter - Logan Recoy, 5:02.30, 1st; Dawson Mason, 5:30.97, 7th (PR); Paxton Bierman, 5:47.58. 10th (PR).

3200-meter - Josiah Coleman, 13:06.16, 14th.

110 hurdles prelim - Crew Witthuhn, 19.24, 9th (PR); Caleb McFate, 19.32, 11th (PR).

300 hurdles - Crew Witthuhn, 47.05, 6th (PR); Caleb Mc Fate, 52.33, 19th.

4x400 relay - Gracey, Pandorf, Recoy, Cool, 3:37.96, 1st.

4x800 relay - Trey Connell, Mason, Cool, Recoy, 9:20.45,

1st.

Shot put - Lance Jones, 41’8”, 4th; Clay Witthuhn,

39’9.5”, 7th (PR).

Discus - Jones, 141’2.25”, 2nd (PR); Rio Remund, 126’0.75”,

5th; Clay Witthuhn, 93’0”, 20th, (PR).

High jump - Crew Witthuhn, 5’4”, 5th (PR).

Pole vault - Coleman,

8’0”, 6th (PR).

Long jump - AJ Starr,

17’7”, 9th; Paulsen, 17’3”,

13th (PR).

Triple jump - Pandorf, 36’7.25”, 3rd (PR).

Girls results

100-meter prelims - Halie Recoy, 13.67, 9th; Josie Reiff,

13.88, 12th; Bryn Schwarz, 14.48, 21st.

200-meter - Recoy, 29.07, 5th.

400-meter - Erin Fitzgerald, 1:08.19, 8th; Ivy Tullis,

1:09.17, 10th.

1600-meter - Talli Martin, 6:01.36, 2nd.

3200-meter - Martin, 12:40.24, 2nd (PR); Ella Cool,

13:29.48, 3rd.

100 hurdles finals - Charli Vickers, 17.65, 5th; Natalie Trotter, NT.

100 hurdles prelim - Vickers, 17.78, 5th; Trotter, 23.32,

16th.

300 hurdles - Vickers, 53.51, 7th; Trotter, 1:07.44, 18th.

4x100 relay - Fitzgerald, Reiff, Recoy, Vickers, 58.14, 7th.

4x400 relay - Abby Stallbaumer, Tullis, Recoy, Fitzgerald, 4:42.12, 3rd.

4x800 relay - Cool, Ava Pandorf, Tullis, Martin, 11:31.75,

1st.

Shot put - Tahnna Nokes, 25’6”, 25th; Riata Remund,

23’3”, 34th; Kaygan Witthuhn, 20’3”, 40th (PR).

Discus - Stallbaumer, 110’7.25”, 2nd; Remund, 78’8.5”,

15th; Witthuhn, 69’7”, 24th (PR).

Long jump - Reiff, 13’8.75”, 9th (PR); Aubrie Birkel,

12’8.75”, 18th (PR); Fitzgerald, 12’7.5”, 20th (PR).

Triple jump - Pandorf, 27’9”, 9th; Birkel, 27’1”, 11th (PR).