Sports

A total of 13 Clay County basketball players were honored this past weekend by the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal-Star with all-state honors.

Sutton’s junior pointguard, Cade Wiseman, led the post-season honors list as a first-team member of the World-Herald’s All Class C-2 team, while in the Journal-Star, Wiseman was tabbed as a second-team selection.

Three other Sutton players for the boys were tabbed as honorable mention selections by both papers, including senior Jacob Haight, and juniors Quenton Jones and Tyler Baldwin. Sandy Creek’s Wyatt Mach, Josh Shaw and Micah Biltoft were named honorable mention selections by both daily papers, as were Harvard players Noah and Ben Okraska.

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EDITORS NOTE: This is the first in a series of stories that the Clay County News will be producing in the light of the school year and spring sports season in jeopardy of taking place, thanks to the invasion of COVID-19 around the world. We’ll be sharing stories of educators, administrators and staff members at our Clay County school districts in the coming weeks related to their high school and college athletic careers in a series we’re calling, “Did You Know?”

For Brandy Thompson, Sutton High School Principal, and Nora Ohrt, the Technology Coordinator at SPS, track and field was, and still is, ingrained deep within their DNA, but it almost didn’t happen.

Both noted that their lives on the track and in the field that became life to each wouldn’t have happened without a spark to even get them involved in the sport.

A total of six Clay County basketball players have been honored by the Southern Nebraska Conference boys coaches for their play during the 2019-20 season.

Sandy Creek senior Wyatt Mach and Sutton junior Cade Wiseman lead the list of county players honored, as both were tabbed as firstteam selections.

Sutton senior Jacob Haight was named to the SNC second team, while Sutton junior Quenton Jones has been selected as a member of the third team this season. Sutton junior Tyler Baldwin, along with Sandy Creek sophomore Josh Shaw were both tabbed as honorable mention selections by the SNC coaches.

The full list of those hon ored are as follows:

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Capped by a fourth-place finish in the Class C-2 state tournament, the Sutton Mustangs wrapped up the 2019-20 basketball season with an impressive 24-4 record.

Sutton, after starting the season with a 7-2 record in December, reeled off 18 straight wins en route to the Class C-2 state tournament. They opened the tournament with a 55-48 overtime win over Centennial, before falling in back-to-back games in the state semifinals and third place game to BRLD and Yutan, respectively.

With little time to prepare for the season, the Mustangs opened on the road with a 51- 42 loss to Kearney Catholic, before going on a five-game win streak, with wins over Heartland, 66-54, Lincoln Christian, 62-45, BDS, 64-29, Hastings St. Cecilia, 49-23. In the opening round of the Grand Island Central Catholic Holiday Tournament, Sutton shredded Fullerton 73- 36, before the host Crusaders gained a 58-42 win over the Mustangs to place second in the holiday tournament.

The old saying that it’s hard to beat someone three times in the same season nearly held true for the Sutton Mustangs, as they opened play in the 2020 Class C-2 state basketball tournament, as the Centennial Broncos looked to opened the Mustangs for the first time this season Thursday night at Lincoln Southeast High School.

Sutton opened the game with a 10-8 lead after the first quarter, but a 16-7 second quarter run by the Broncos put the Mustangs on their heels for the remainder of the game, as Centennial took a 24-17 half-time lead.

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Two Cardinals hit triple digits in points to lead the Harvard girl’s basketball team throughout the 2019-20 season, where the girls in red had a 5-15 record.

Freshman Aimee Whetstine-Jones and junior Ashley Nierman scored 151 and 142 points, respectively. Whetstine-Jones connected on 59 of 211 (28%) shots from the floor, while Nierman hit for 50-255 (20%).

Opening season play saw a series of losses for the Cardinals coming from Giltner (Dec. 5), Shelton (Dec. 10), Franklin (Dec. 12), Axtell (Dec. 14), and Dorchester (Dec. 17), before their first season five-point win over Heartland Lutheran on Dec. 21.

Their second win wouldn’t come until 2020, when the Cardinals earned a 39-24 win over Red Cloud Jan. 10. Harvard dropped to Hampton and Kenesaw Dec. 27-28, and Gibbon on Jan. 3.

Despite a tough start to the 2019-20 basketball season, one that would pair the Sutton Fillies up against three top-ranked teams in Superior, Lincoln Christian and Hastings St. Cecilia, the Fillies rebounded from a tough 2-6 record in December to capture 10 straight wins, prior to entering the Southern Nebraska Conference tournament with a 12-6 record.

Sutton earned wins over Heartland (57-42) and Fullerton (46-32) in December, while falling in matchups with Superior and Kearney Catholic in the opening week of the season.

Lincoln Christian, BDS and St. Cecilia gained wins over the Fillies after the 15-point win over Heartland and before the 14-point win over Fullerton.

This year’s challenger isn’t a stranger for the third seeded Sutton Mustangs, as they head into their second straight state tournament berth, it’s with an extremely familiar foe in the Centennial Broncos.

Could this be the year of the Mustang? Or, could it be a mystery of action walking into the gymnasium of yet another Lincoln Public Schools gym?

Thursday night’s 8:45 p.m. battle at Lincoln Southeast High School will be a challenge between the two Southern Nebraska Conference schools that will pair two teams that know each other inside and out. It’ll be a shootout in the OK Corral, between a group of wild Mustangs, and scrappy Broncos. It’s the No. 3 seed vs. the No. 6 seed. It’s a battle that will bring out the best of two programs that over the past two or three years have duked it out for bragging rights in the SNC regular season and the SNC tournament titles.

Two nights following a sluggish 34-28 win over Hastings St. Cecilia in the opening round of the C2-9 Sub-District tournament, the Sutton Mustangs erupted for a high octane 25-point, 73-48 win over the Doniphan-Trumbull Cardinals in the finals of the tournament at Adams Central High School.

The Thursday night win marked the Mustangs’ 17th straight win and moved Sutton into the C2-3 District Final with Oakland-Craig at Columbus High School this past Monday night.

Thursday’s win marks the first win in the past four season for Sutton over the Cardinals, as D-T had claimed two straight sub-district wins over the Mustangs, winning a double overtime clash with Sutton, 66-63, in 2017, and two years ago, claiming a 62-59 sub-district win over Sutton.

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Coming off of their commanding 73-48 sub-district title win over Doniphan-Trumbull, the Sutton Mustangs had one last hurdle to get over to gain their second straight bid for the state tournament, a win over the 17-8 Oakland-Craig Knights, the same program that upended the Mustangs in the 2019 Class C-2 state football championship 19-0 back in late November.

The same athletic team that despite their eight losses, was perhaps the most challenging draw in Class C-2’s district final round in the class.

The trip to Columbus High School carried a heavy dose of reality for both teams, win and you advance to the state tournament, a loss ends successful seasons for both teams.

For the Mustangs, the evening unveiled several key factors that could have very well left Sutton short of a tournament berth.