LEFT: Members of Sandy Creek’s Cougar Pride Booster Club, Brian Shaw, left, and Darrell Springer, grill some hamburgers and hot dogs during the Southern Nebraska Conference Track Meet, held this Saturday, at Sandy Creek High School. RIGHT: Don Bottorf, serving as the starter for each track event, kicks off a race with the pull of the trigger during the SNC meet April 28.

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BY JORDYN HULINSKY

The Harvard Cardinals accounted for a combined 110 points between the boys’ and girls’ teams, behind five first-place finishes. Two of the first places came from senior Shyanne Porter in the form of school records.

Porter broke Tami Brehm’s 100-meter dash record, set in 1972 at 12.5 seconds, when she finished in 12.37 seconds at the Twin Valley Conference meet in Kenesaw Saturday.

Katie Klein’s 2006 record in the 200 was also replaced by Porter, when she finished in 26.21. Klein’s record was 26.7 seconds.

Freshman Ashley Nierman and junior Breonna Julich also claimed the top spot in their respective events for the girls’ team.

Nierman cleared 7 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault and Julich threw 36-7.5 in the shot put to finish first.

BY JORDYN HULINSKY

For the boys’ conference track meet, Sutton earned 107 points en route to a conference title at the meet hosted at Sandy Creek.

The Sutton boys scored the 107 points led by three first places, beginning with the 4x400 relay.

Sophomore Maury Bautista, freshman Cade Wiseman, junior Kyle Baumert and senior Casey Van Kirk ran the 4x400 in 3 minutes, 36.55 seconds.

Baumert also grabbed two individual first places—15.12 seconds in the 100 hurdles and 41.44 in the 300 hurdles.

Junior Cameron Kleinschmidt was right on Baumert’s tail, grabbing a second in the 100 hurdles with a 15.62 and a third in the 300 hurdles in 42.27. He also grabbed a second in the 100-meter dash, clocking a 11.55.

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By Tory Duncan

For over nine years now, as I inch closer and closer to starting my 10th year at the Clay County News, I’ve had the luxury of experiencing some amazing moments, not just athletically, but in so many ways.

Saturday, while covering the Southern Nebraska Conference Track and Field meet at Sandy Creek High School, something hit me...again!

This time, however, it was a little deeper, it got to the core of what I have been seeing and witnessing for the last nine track seasons.

All of us in this region know Don Bottorf, he’s the guy at the starting line and at the finish line of so many big meets in this region.

White hair and always smiling, with two guns in his hands.... Safe to say Don is shooting smoke!

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In less than two weeks, Nebraska voters go to the polls to begin sorting out the cast of characters for the 2019 Legislature and other statewide offices at the primary election.

There are six seats that have been term-limited and a handful that could have contentious races if Governor Pete Ricketts chooses to, once again, flaunt his personal wealth to derail some incumbents with whom he disagrees. Given the failure of his property tax proposal, that list may have grown.

Two senators have chosen to leave after only one term and two more are hoping to leave at mid-term by running for other statewide offices. Sens. Roy Baker of Beatrice and John Kuehn of Heartwell are calling it quits after one session. Sen. John Murante of Gretna is running for state treasurer in a race against one other Republican. Sen. Dan Watermeier of Syracuse is running for a seat on the Nebraska Public Service Commission against two other Republicans and two Democrats.

RON ROSATI, PH.D., NCTA DEAN Aggie success was on display late last week at a national agricultural contest in Norfolk, NE. Twenty-five NCTA students and three faculty members attended the 2018 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Contests at the campus of one of our Nebraska counterparts, Northeast Nebraska Community College.

Your NCTA Aggies were named 2018 Reserve Champions among two-year colleges in the NACTA sweepstakes of 13 contests testing agricultural knowledge and skill. Congratulations to the Aggies for high achievement at this pinnacle of academic endeavor.

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The Little Blue Natural Resources District has received confirmation that it will receive two grants from the Nebraska Environmental Trust in the 2018 awards, and will be a partner in a third grant award submitted by the Tri-Basin NRD. These projects are three of the 105 projects receiving a portion of the $18,301,819 in grant awards from the Trust.

The first is a $208,870 grant called “Puddles Under the Pivots” and is being administered with the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture. The project in its third year, is designed to restore historical wetlands but also provides funds for the establishment of grazing infrastructure on the wetlands with the landowners’ retaining the right to pass a center pivot over the enrolled acres. Grant funds will be leveraged with significant funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Wetland Reserve Easement Partnership (WREP) grant.

March 20, 1924 - April 27, 2018

Jan. 20, 1938 - April 24, 2018

Feb. 13, 1934 - April 21, 2018