This is long overdue. But we had a lot of thoughts after the season and this blog could be incredibly long.
After we wrapped up the Spring Sports Season, all we could say was "Wow." Success comes and goes. Things are cyclical. But as a whole, RPAC teams found a way to have a heck of a year this spring sports season. Let's dive into it. For both Track and Golf, we could have went on and on, mentioning the performances we saw all season long. The baseball season for Maxwell/St. Pat's was entertaining, especially in the postseason. We are hoping next spring to get to some Maxwell-St. Pat's Baseball games. But we provided a snapshot of some things, and of course, you can check out all of our blogs on the site to see more.
Baseball
Maxwell/St. Pat's finished the season at 2-9. One of those wins came in the postseason over Tekamah-Herman. They had a nice year as a whole on the offensive side. Max Robinson hit .500 with 3 RBI's, Cyrrus Messersmith was a .481 hitter with 7 RBI's, and Breckyn Collins was solid at the dish too with a .414 average. In total, they had five players bat bover .285.
This is a program we are excited to watch keep growing.
Track and Field
The track season as a whole was incredible. To start with RPAC Track Invite had to get finished up just before a big storm rolled through. Arapahoe did a great job of hosting the meet and getting the meet wrapped up. The Wallace Girls came up with the title and Cambridge Boys won the team titles.
On the girls side, fans were lucky enough to see a pair of athletes battle throughout the season, Adi Hunt of Southern Valley and Clara Spargo of Dundy County Stratton. Between 400's and sprints, we were lucky enough to watch them race a number of times. At the D-7 District invite in McCook, the race between those two was probably the best we saw all year long. Spargo won with a 57.74. Hunt was right there with a 57.80. Spargo was great at state too, while battling an injury. She broke the 400-meter state and state meet record with a time of 56.74.
Hunt at State was able to capture a state and state meet record at Burke Stadium during the Track and Field Championships. She ran a 12.30 prelim time, breaking the state record, that JoLie Farr of Cambridge set the week before at districts, a 12.35.
Also, Ashley Robertson of Wallace winning the mile was an incredible feat too. She was shocked to win it, but she ran an excellent race.
And Kennedy Bailey of DCS popping off a 127-0 in the discus was incredible too. She was the champ in that event.
Southern Valley's Girls Team came away with a runner-up finish at state thanks to outstanding performances from Hunt, 2nd in the 100, 2nd in the 400, 1st in the 200, and 1st in the long jump. Ann Bose of the Eagles also got a gold medal in the high jump.
For the boys, down at state seeing Cambridge's Carson Trompke compete at a high level was entertaining. Winning both the mile and two-mile. Impressive races that he controlled from the outset. Also in that mile Southwest's Austin Thompson took 7th place with a new school record.
In pole vault, Marcus Hernandez of Bertrand placed 3rd with a vault of 13'6" and Isaac Hernandez of Bertrand placed 5th with a vault of 13'6". It was neat to see a pair of brothers come away with medals at state.
We primarily highlighted the state track and field championships but throughout the entire season it was an incredible season and we saw so many great things.
To read up on NSAA State Track and Field Championships, read day one here and day two here.
Golf
For starters, I don't think RPAC golfers had many good weather days for golf meets. That's no one's fault. We can't predict the future and what the weather will look like. It's Nebraska weather. But, the athletes did a nice job battling those elements all season long and by the end of the year, we had a total of 11 RPAC Golfers make it to state and three take home medals, and a team finish as a runner-up finish.
The medalists were Jack Baker of Hitchcock County, tied for 2nd, Kamden Bose of Southern Valley, tied for 5th, and Brayden Melchert of Hitchcock, tied for 14th. To read up on our state coverage, read about day one here and day two here.
We had the chance to catch Hitchcock County a number of times and the Falcons were great all year long. They came away with the Class D Runner-Up trophy and had some great individual performances. Jack Baker was solid for the full season. He broke the Hitchcock County school record at the Arapahoe Invite, a 74. He shot that score again in the season, at the Southwest Invite. Brayden Melchert has shown his potential a number of times throughout his career. Always very solid but we all have been waiting to see him break through. He did at state with a 78 on the second day. That was the first time he broke 80.
We saw a lot of golfers make a jump from last year to this year, and even from the beginning of the season to the end.
Southwest's Colton Sedlacek played his best golf at the end of the year and qualified for state. Southwest was a fun team to watch too. They came away with a 2nd place finish at RPAC, behind Hitchcock County. Between Sedlacek getting 14th and Houston Billeter getting 4th it was a great day. The Roughriders hosted the event and it wrapped up before the storm rolled through too.
Southern Valley was led by Kamden Bose and Braxton Hammond. Both steady as you can be on the course. A fun duo of seniors to watch.
This is our second spring covering the conference and our first time really covering golf at this level. We had so much fun covering the golf teams in the conference.
Final Thoughts
Outstanding spring sports season. We expected to see some strong performances. But if you had asked us if we anticipated this kind of a spring sports season, we would have told you no probably. We had a blast watching and documenting it all as it unfolded.
As always thank you to the schools, coaches, student-athletes, sponsors, and folks who consume our content. Summer is fun, but we are ready for the fall sports season to roll around.