Sports

The Sutton Junior Legion baseball team ran their record to a perfect 6-0 after big wins over Hastings Runza and Doniphan-Trumbull this past week.

The Post 61 Juniors opened the week, Tuesday, May 31, with a five-run, 10-5 win over Hastings Runza, while closing out the week with a five-inning 11-1 win over Doniphan-Trumbull.

The win over Hastings earned the Runza squad an early 5-1 lead over Sutton after three innings of play, with Hastings outscoring Sutton 3-0 in the first and 2-1 in the third frame.

Sutton’s bats and offensive production then came to life in their final three at bats, scoring two runs in the fourth inning to trail 5-3 after four.

In the fifth inning, another two runs tied the game at five, before the Post 61 crew hit Hastings Runza up for five runs and the eventual 10-5 win.

Myles Jones was 2-3 at the plate, while Thomas Bonde drove in two runs, while gaining two singles during four trips to the plate.

Sutton graduate, Matthew Davis, shown in the left photo and Sandy Creek graduate Josh Shaw, right photo, both played for the South team during the 2022 Nebraska Shrine Bowl Saturday evening in Kearney. Davis played on special teams and was a linebacker in the game, while Shaw was the starting right guard for the squad. In the end, a late safety gave the North squad a 17-15 win over the south. The game was played on the home turf of the University of Nebraska-Kearney football team, inside Ron and Carol Cope stadium on the UNK Campus. It was the 64th annual Shrine Bowl. In all, including Davis and Shaw, there have been 23 Clay County players take part in the annual event. Sutton has had 11 players selected, Sandy Creek, eight, Clay Center had three and Harvard, one. See more images on page 9. TORY DUNCAN | CLAY COUNTY NEWS

When you talk dogs with Ryan Griess of Sutton, his level of dog knowledge versus the average citizen is a light years difference, and rightly so.

Griess and his German Shorthair Pointer, Rhett, are in a class of competition handlers and dogs that is so rare, that the uniqueness of Griess and Rhett is almost in a class of their own.

The duo at an honors banquet held May 4, in Council Bluffs, IA were named the 2021 Amateur Gun Dog of the Year by the German Wirehaired Pointer Club of Eastern Nebraska, winning the annual title by two points.

The recent honor proves to be a part of a long list of successes that Griess, Rhett, and Griess’ pair of Tennessee Walking Horses, Thor and Loki, have earned in over five years of competing in horseback field trials.

“It’s a pretty big honor to receive, but it didn’t come without a huge amount of work and effort over the past five years to achieve this honor,” said Griess.

Sutton freshman Jadyn Friesen wrapped up his first season of varsity golf competition at the 2022 Class C State Golf Championships, May 24 and 25 in Columbus.

He finished the two 18-hole rounds in a two-way tie for 62nd with Kearney Catholic’s Taten Shoemaker. In all, there were 96 total qualifiers for the state tournament. During both days, qualifiers

During both days, qualifiers had to deal with a lot of mother nature, as rain fell during both days of the tournament, played on the Elks Country Club course in Columbus.

Friesen opened day one with a 27-over par 99, carding a 10- over 46 on the front nine holes, while finishing the back nine with a 17-over 53.

Day two began with a very strong 4-over par 40 on his first nine holes, before wrapping up his play on the back nine with a 15-over 51 to card a 19-over 91.

All told, Friesen finished the 2022 tournament with a 46-over 190.

Sandy Creek graduate Josh Shaw, along with Sutton graduate Matthew Davis, will both play their final high school football game as a Cougar and Mustang, representing their respective schools in the 64th Annual Nebraska Shrine Bowl, this Saturday, June 4. The game is set to be played on Foster Field inside the Ron and Carol Cope Stadium at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, with kickoff slated for 6 p.m.

Tickets for the 64th Annual Nebraska Shrine Bowl Game are now on sale online at the Nebraska Shrine Bowl’s official website.

General admission game tickets are $15 with first come first served seating (price does not include service fees). Club-level tickets in the mezzanine area are available for $35. Tickets are not required for children under the age of 2. Tickets can also be purchased on game day at Foster Field Box Office.

Xavier Marburger capped a big junior year campaign at the 2022 Nebraska State High School track and field championships Friday, as Marburger nailed down a fourth-place medal in the triple jump.

Marburger hit his event’s best mark of 41’ 9.25” on his first attempt of the preliminary round Friday morning inside Burke Stadium.

The junior had four total jumps that were over 40- feet, while two other marks broke the 39-foot barrier.

Riverside’s Tony Berger earned gold by over two feet in the event. His jump of 44’ 3.25” bested second-place Quintin Shaner of Cambridge who sailed 42’ 1”.

Finishing just ahead of Marburger was Seth Scranton of Sandhills-Thedford, as Scranton hit the 42’ 0.5” mark for third place.

Marburger’s efforts on the track would leave him short of the Class D finals in both sprints.

Sutton freshman Jadyn Friesen reached the pinnacle of high school golf in Nebraska, as Friesen, behind a personal best score of 76, advanced out of the C-4 District golf meet to the Class C state golf tournament, which began this past Tuesday morning in Columbus.

Friesen blazed the Indianhead Golf Club course with an impressive 41 to open play in Grand Island, but even more impressive is the Mustang freshman putted just 10 times on his way to a one-under 35 on the back nine holes of the course to place fifth overall.

Friesen, across all five Class C district meets would have won the C-3 District and tied for first in the C-2 District. He’ll take the ninth-best overall district score to state as Sutton’s lone state qualifier.

Freshman Harrison Herndon finished the 18-hole tournament with a 92, scoring a 47 on the front and a 45 on the back side.

Tanner Huber ended play with a 101 (47-54), while Adam Griess shot a 109 (48-61).

During the 2021 Nebraska State Track and Field Championships, Sutton junior Nathan Baldwin was little known to the world of throwers in the state of Nebraska until capturing gold in both the shot put and discus.

In 2022, Baldwin was the target to beat; his name is very well known to throwers regardless of class in the state, so as he entered the state meet this past weekend, everyone knew this tall blond-haired kid because of the mark he’s left over the course of the past year.

Friday, as he stepped into the shot put ring, he had a Class C leading 59’ 6.25” throw, a feat that he captured during the first outdoor meet of the season in late March.

In the eyes of Baldwin, his third-place finish in the Class C shot put may have left the Sutton junior a bit disappointed as his state meet best throw of 53’ 8.5” placed him behind a pair of Northeast Nebraska throwers, Kade Pieper of Norfolk Catholic and Kamden Dusatko of Stanton.

One week removed from breaking a 45-year-old school record in the long jump, Leah Hatch capped her high school jumping career with a third-place finish in the Class C long jump event at the 2022 state track and field meet at Burke High School in Omaha.

Additionally, Jenna Heinz also cashed in for state meet hardware with her seventh-place finish in the triple jump to cap her career as a Cougar.

Friday’s long jump earned Hatch the third-place finish in the long jump on her final attempt of the championshipround of the event with a leap of 16’ 8.5”.

Hatch went into the finals with a state meet best effort of 16’ 4” in the prelims.

Superior’s Ella Gardner, who won the C-7 District with a monster jump of 19’ 6.75” won the Class C state title with an 18’ 0.75” jump. Finishing just ahead of Hatch was Wisner-Pilger jumper Lindsey Kniefl who sailed 17’ 3.25”.

The Sutton Fillies’ trek through the C-7 District track and field meet in Superior would see the Fillies advance to the state track and field championships in six events this weekend at Omaha Burke High School.

Junior Alivia Huxoll earned the first ticket to state with a win in the high jump, sailing over the 4’ 11” barrier to claim gold. Two other jumpers, including Megan Vrooman of Hastings St. Cecilia and Lacie Kirchoff of Superior, also cleared the 4’ 11” height, but by way of fewer misses in the competition, Huxoll gained top honors.

Five events on the track will advance to Omaha and aided the Fillies to place third in the final team standings with 70 team points.

St. Cecilia ran away with the team title, outscoring second-place Superior 147-98.5 in the final standings.

Two relay teams for Sutton gained state meet berths as additional qualifiers after placing second in the 4x800-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay.