O'Neill - The 2024 Class C & D High School State Track & Field Championships were held at Burke Stadium in Omaha this past Friday & Saturday, May 17th & 18th. It featured the most elite athletes from across the state and among those were five Niobrara-Verdigre girls, Josilyn Miller, Allison Sucha, Taylen Stark, Delani Runnels, and Amber Sucha. The weather for this year's state meet was ideal for the athletes to put up their best marks of the year as was evident with an amazing 44 state records set across all four classes of schools! The Niobrara-Verdigre Cougar girls team performed extremely well and came away with the Class D team state championship trophy! All five girls set personal records in at least one of their events en route to earning 52 team points which was 6 points ahead of the Class D state runner-up, Southern Valley. The remaining top 10 Class D teams in order were Elm Creek, Nebraska Christian, Plainview, Overton, Dundy County-Stratton, Wallace, St. Mary's, and Loomis. Congratulations to all athletes and teams on a fine performance. Thank you to all Niobrara-Verdigre athletes for representing our schools and for showing the utmost class towards all competitors. Thank you also for your respect shown towards all meet officials and opposing coaches. The entire state of Nebraska has taken notice of Niobrara-Verdigre track & field. Niobrara-Verdigre did have an individual state champion! It was Delani Runnels in the 3200M run. Delani's time of 11:51.08 shattered her own school record which was set earlier this year. The Lady Cougars also had two individual silver medalists Taylen Stark earned 2nd in the 800M run with a school record time of 2:22.73 while Delani Runnels earned 2nd in the 1600M run with a time of 5:28.69 (just 0.01 sec from first!). Individual bronze medalists included Delani Runnels in the 800M (2:24.11 PR), Amber Sucha in the high jump (5-2), and the 4x400M relay team with a new school record time of 4:09.84. That relay team consists of Taylen Stark, Delani Runnels, Amber Sucha, and Josilyn Miller. Other medalists included Josilyn Miller 5th place 400M with a school record of 59.44, Taylen Stark 8th place 400M (1:00.40 PR), Allison Sucha 7th place 100H (16.14 PR) and also 8th place in the long jump with a school record jump of 16 feet 7.25 inches. Josilyn Miller also competed in two other events in which she also set new school records. Miller ran the 100M dash in a time of 12.97 and the 200M dash in a time of 26.79 while just missing out on medaling. "Congratulations to all individual athletes. You are a special group of girls who just brought home a coveted NSAA team state championship trophy!" - Coach Shabram This concludes a very special track & field season for the Cougars which saw new school records set, reset, and then set again in 11 different events while winning first place team trophies in 8 different track meets and runner-up at the Niobrara Valley Conference track meet. Niobrara-Verdigre also saw 2 girls win Northeast Nebraska star athletes of the week awards along with having the Outstanding Female competitor of the Norfolk Classic. Winning the Class D State title caps off the season in a very fitting way. History was made, memories were made, and accomplishments like these will last forever! Story by Jeff Shabram