THE BULL
Championships are hard to come by, especially at the state level, even runner-up finishes are so hard to achieve at the state level.
In Clay County alone this past school year, the Sandy Creek football team powered through the rigors of the Class D-1 playoffs and earned the Cougar program it’s first ever state football championship with that gut wrenching 44-42 win over Stanton back on Monday, Nov. 25, on Tom Osborne Field inside of the storied Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
But before the Cougars claimed the championship in Lincoln, three young ladies on the Sandy Creek cross country team battled to a Class D state runner-up finish in Kearney, led by Madison Shaw’s fourth place medal, along with an 18th place finish by Madalyn Andersen, and a 20th place finish by Paige Stengel, as those three girls alone claimed the runner-up spot as a team behind McCool Junction to kick off this past school year.
Let’s fast forward to the winter sports season, and we saw wrestling take centerstage for state meet hardware, as Sandy Creek senior Rowan Jarosik pinned his way to the Class D 165-pound state championship. Jarosik won four straight matches, including two pinfall wins, a tech fall win and a decision by score victory to claim his first-ever state meet gold medal, a year after placing second as a junior.
Sutton sophomore Griffin Bergen served notice in Omaha this past winter that he’ll be back looking for the big prize during his junior season next year, after gaining the state runner-up finish in the Class D 175-pound weight class.
And finally, this past weekend in Omaha, the Sandy Creek girls put the “cherry on top” of a stellar season for Sandy Creek athletics, crowning a pair of Class C state champions on the Omaha Burke oval, as Sandy Creek’s 3200-meter relay team (AKA the 4x800-meter relay...I’m old world, as to me the 3200-meter relay has been what I’ve called that race forever). Nonetheless, Emma Fisher, Stengel, and Shaw, along with Anna Paus, claimed gold in the event with another school record setting race, while Shaw hit the Burke Stadium tape first in the 1600-meter run, to break a 34-year-old school record in the process.
We have more official state meet events this week, as Sutton senior Jadyn Friesen will hit the links in Grand Island Wednesday and Thursday to battle it out for the Class C individual state title. Sandy Creek’s entire team advanced to the Class D state meet in Columbus this week as well.
Stay tuned for those results in next week’s Clay County News. All in all, I’d say the 2024-25 athletic season was pretty stellar in Clay County. It is worth mentioning that Sandy Creek football will be represented by Ethan Shaw, and Hudson Devlin in post-season football games, as both will play in the upcoming Sertoma 8-Man All-Star game in Hastings, and prior to the 8-man game, Shaw will be the third in his family to represent Sandy Creek in the Nebraska Shrine Bowl coming up Saturday, June 7, beginning at 4 p.m., on the home turf of the University of Nebraska- Kearney Lopers. The 8-man All-Star game will be played at 6 p.m. on Hastings College’s home turf Saturday, June 21. Joining Shaw and Devlin, from Sutton in the 8-man tilt is Gabe Gwennap.
