Sectional meet turns out well for Oregon and their coach

LENA – Oregon girls track & field coach Nick Schneiderman, normally reserved and stoic, admitted to being a nervous wreck before the May 15 1A sectional.

Considering he was in the unique situation of hoping his Hawks could claim their first-ever sectional title and also being a father to a top-flight athlete from another school, a change to his emotional state was certainly validated with so much at stake at Lena-Winslow.

It was a happy ending all around, as his daughter Bree qualified for state in three events, breaking two Forreston school records in the process and Oregon finally won that coveted sectional championship. The Hawks scored 118.5 points to 116.5 for Winnebago.

“Things calmed down after Breelyn made it in the 100,” Schneiderman said. “We also got off to a good start in the field events and things started feeling better for me.”

To beat perennial power Winnebago, Oregon needed the field events to set the stage for the running portion of the meet and that even happened the day before the meet started.

With L-W not having pole vault, the event was held in Winnebago on Wednesday and Sonya Plescia made it a return trip to state after being a finalist two years ago as a sophomore. Her 9-foot-1 clearance was second to Natalie Forward of RC. Cheyanne Edlund added a fourth with 7-7.

Alease McLain edged out a pair of Winnebago discus throwers for first with a 113-4. In the shot put, Noelle Girton came up with a third, good for 6 points.

In the high jump Grace Tremble and Skylar Bishop each went 5′ to qualify and place second and third. Though they missed qualifying, Lorelai Dannhorn (3rd in the 800) and Gabriele Hoyle went 3-4 in the triple jump for more valuable points.

“Depth and being able to move girls around is critical in winning a meet like this,” Schneiderman said.

On the track, a good example of saving points was freshman Madeline Rogers finishing fifth instead of sixth in the 800 and 1,600 meters, by the narrowest of margins in each.

“It’s the little things like that saved the meet for us,” Schneiderman said. “Then you have someone like Jillian winning two events. She had a great night.”

As expected, hurdler Jillian Hammer swept both her specialties, including a personal best of 46.65 in the 300 hurdles. She is ranked in the top 10 in both the 100 and 300 hurdles for 1A.

Schneiderman’s allegiance to his own family versus his own team was severely tested in the 400 meters with a dramatic result. As expected, the best sprinter in 1A, Emma Randecker of West Carroll, won the event at 57.26. Second place came down to be Tremble of Oregon and Schneiderman of Forreston-Polo, with Tremble winning 1:00.13 to 1:00.14, in the closest finish of the meet.

That razor thin .001 margin was also the difference in winning the win outright or not, as the difference between second and third was 2 points.

“Grace hates to run the open 400, but still beat my daughter,” chuckled Schneiderman.

Also finishing behind Randecker in the 100 and 200, Schneiderman’s times of 12.03 and 25.10 were personal bests. The 12.03 broke Amy Steinhousen’s 1994 school record and the Schneiderman broke her own 200 record.

“I was blessed that things came about the way they did for Oregon and Bree,” Schneiderman said.

Oregon’s fate wasn’t decided until the final event of the night, the 1,600 relay. Host school L-W helped the cause by beating second-place Winnebago, with Oregon (Hammer, Dannhorn, Bishop, Tremble) taking third at 4:16, good enough for state qualifying.

“We did just enough in the 1,600 to hang on,” Schneiderman said. “We are going to have run better in all our relays to have a shot downstate.”

The 400 relay of Hoyle, Bishop, Miranda Ciesel and Taylor Weems clocked a SQ 51.30, good for third. The fourth-place 800 relay also went SQ at 1:49, with Hoyle, Ciesel, Hammer and Tremble sharing the baton.

In all, Oregon qualified seven individuals and three relays. Schneiderman (100, 200, 400) was Forreston-Polo sole qualifier and also third in the long jump.

F-P finished fifth in the team standings with 61 points.

Senior throwers Bella Bergstrom, Katelyn Rockwood and Alayna Young medaled for F-P, along with sixths from Lucy Bawinkel in the 400 and Laynie Mandrell the 100 hurdles. Bawinkel, Mandrell, Kyla Lamm and Drue Behrends combined for a fourth in the 3,200 relay with a 11:36.