Sports

Ethan Piper, a senior at Harvard High School this year opened his 2021 trap shooting season with the Crooked Creek Trap Team by winning the 20-21- yard handicap event during the opening week at the Crooked Creek Gun Club near Stockham. The Crroked Creek team this year consists of 43 shooters from Aurora, Giltner, Harvard, Heartland and High Plains.

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On paper, you wouldn’t even think that it’s been almost two years since the Sandy Creek girls track program has had any action in the spring, as the Cougars nearl came away with the team title at the Concordia University Bulldog Challenge team title Friday, March 19.

One point separated the Cougars and the Platteview Trojans in the end, as the Trojans held on for a 67-66 win in a field that proved to be highly contested in Seward.

Third place Shelby-Rising City trailed Sandy Creek by four points with 62, while Hastings St. Cecilia finished with 61.

Junior Leah Hatch had a big effort in the meet, accounting for 28 individual team points on her own, winning both the long jump and the 60-meter dash, while placing second in the 200-meter dash.

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The Sutton Mustangs fourth grade Boys Basketball team were champions of their division during action in the annual MIT basketball tournament in Lincoln this past weekend.

Players on the team include Jesse Mohnike, Harrison Schurmann, Myles Smith, Everett Yost, Kylar Ely, Kellen Ebert, Davin Higby, Mason Ehly and Chase Clark.

During the tournament, the Sutton youngsters defeated the Southern Raiders of Wymore 38-26, the Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family Bulldogs 31-24 and the Lincoln Midwest Magic, 59-5.

Coaching the boys is BJ Smith, Ted Ehly, Reed Ely, Corey Ebert and Jon Yost.

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Joe Hinrichs, a name that if you ask any young wrestling fan who that is, you just might get a 15 minute tongue lashing from his young fans if you don’t know Joe.

Hinrichs is a role model to many, but even more important, he’s a leader by example, not just on the wrestling mats or the football field, he’s a quiet leader that speaks loud and clear with his actions.

As the Clay County News announces it’s 2020-21 All-County wrestling team this week, it begins at the top with Hinrichs.

His numbers are known by many...171 wins, the most ever in program history...two-state championships, the first ever to do so in program history and the first to win two state wrestling titles in Clay County since Dale Fike of Sandy Creek did so in 1986 and 1987.

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ABOVE: Senior Cade Wiseman, holding the ball, surpassed the 1,000-point career mark in the Mustangs’ 60-39 win over Hastings St. Cecilia Thursday, Feb. 25, as his 15 points in the win took his career total to 1,005 points, as the Mustangs turned their sights on the Freeman Falcons in the C2-4 district final in Adams Monday night.

RIGHT: Wiseman holds a ball commemorating his shooting feat of 1,000 career points, while Caleb Ladehoff (30), Tyler Baldwin (42), and Jackson Anderson look on following Sutton’s 21-point win over the Bluehawks.

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The Sutton Mustangs and Freeman Falcons certainly are not strangers on the basketball court. As the two teams have met up on the hardwood court 13 times over a span of 17 years, before Monday night’s C2-4 district final.

At stake was a trip to the Class C-2 state tournament, which runs March 9-13 in Lincoln.

The majority of meetings between the Mustangs and the Falcons took place in holiday tournament action from 2004 through 2015 when Sutton headed to Adams for the annual tournament. One other game, a 46-39 sub-district tournament win by Sutton over Freeman in 2013, gave the Mustangs a 7-6 series edge, as both teams won six games in 12 holiday tournament games.

Monday night, it looked as if it would be another highly contested battle between the two teams.

Anytime you pit the Sutton Fillies and Centennial Broncos together on the basketball court you’re going to get a battle beyond belief, as the two Southern Nebraska Conference teams have had epic battles game in and game out over the past few years.

This year, the Fillies and Broncos had squared off two times prior to Friday night’s C2-8 district final clash. The three battles all took place on

The three battles all took place on the Broncos home floor, as Centennial tripped the Fillies 47-40 in regular season play on Jan. 8, then claimed a 38-28 win over Sutton in the SNC title game on Feb. 8. Friday night’s challenge for a trip to

Friday night’s challenge for a trip to the Class C-2 State tournament was an even tighter clash, as a 6-3 advantage in overtime gave Centennial a 49-46 win, to end the Fillies season with a 19-7 overall record.

Fresh off a 70-37 over the Superior Wildcats just five nights before the opening round of the C2-7 Sub-District tournament, the Sutton Mustangs once again had the task at hand of hosting the Wildcats in the early game of Tuesday night’s first round in the post-season.

Initially, the Wildcats held a lead over the host Mustangs, as Sutton wouldn’t take their first lead until the 2:02 mark of the first period.

With the 6-5 lead at that point, Sutton added four more points before quarters end for a 10-5 lead in the opening stanza and never looked back. The Mustangs outscored

The Mustangs outscored Superior 17-10 in the second frame for a 27-15 lead at the half and went on a 37-21 second half run to improve to 17-7 on the year, with a 64-36 win over the Wildcats.

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The stage was set for Sutton senior Joe Hinrichs to go out as a record-setting champion, following his C-2 District championship on Feb. 13 in Battle Creek.

Hinrichs had compiled a 167-19 career record over the course of the past four years.

He needed three wins to eclipse Tyler Bailey’s career total wins of 169, established at the end of the 2015 season, but just as big, with Hinrichs’ fourth straight trip to the Nebraska State Wrestling championships, he was set up to become Sutton’s first-ever two-time state champion after winning the Class C 152-pound weight class as a junior in 2020.

His trek to the 160-pound state title this year was no easy task this past weekend, but the mindset for Hinrichs was obvious, as his battle-tested focus was like no other when he opened with his first match Friday night at the CHI Health Center in Omaha.

Senior Joe Hinrichs and sophomore Vance Smith hit the mats at Battle Creek in action at the C-2 District meet Saturday, and both would extend their seasons one more week. The Mustang duo stood upon the medal stand, with Hinrichs gaining his second straight district title, while Smith punched his first-ever ticket to the big show in Omaha.

Hinrichs, who claimed district gold in the 152-pound class a year ago, captured the top spot in the 160-pound class this year, gaining three wins to become just the fifth Sutton wrestler to qualify for state all four years during his high school career.

Other four-time state qualifiers include Austin Carlson, Evan Carlson, Derek Bailey and Ignacio Rivera.

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