For the first time in school history, the Milford boys brought home the Southern Nebraska Conference track and field team title.
“Milford has been a member of the Southern Nebraska Conference since 1972-73,” Coach Cody Gregory said. “In our 52nd try, we finally came out on top!”
The Eagles were the favorite on paper, he said.
“All week we were telling them they didn’t have to do anything extraordinary. They just had to show up and compete the way they had been all year long,” he said. “If they showed up relaxed and confident and let the competition push them to be their best, we would come out on top.”
The field event athletes came out ready to compete and gave the team an unexpected push, Gregory said.
Connor Adams got things going with a personal best in the triple jump at 38-6.5 to finish fifth.
“Those jumps got the team really excited from the start,” Gregory said.
Zeb Reil was the long jump runner-up with a jump of 20-4.5, a PR for him. Cash Martin set a PR in the pole vault at 12-0 and placed third. Colby Rautenberg jumped 5-10, a PR, in the high jump to place second.
The 4x800-meter relay team of Jonny Kohout, Martin, Rylan Hollist and Gus Crabtree surprised everyone with a fourth-place finish. It was the first 4x800 relay for the Eagles this season.
“When only five other schools had teams entered, these four boys stepped up to win at least a point for their team,” Gregory said. “To their credit, they competed hard and ended up in fourth place, surprising everyone but themselves and the coaches.”
Avery Carter led the team with three gold medals, winning the 800 (2:02.66), 1,600 (4:55.88) and 3,200 (10:31.19).
Garrett Freeman ran PRs in the 800 and 1,600 and finished second behind Carter in both races.
Sylus Rakow also ran a PR in the 3,200 (11:15.66) and placed fourth.
Isaac Roth won a pair of golds in the hurdles, taking the 110-meter final in 16 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles in 39.57 seconds. His time leads Class B and is No. 5 in all classes. It’s also a new conference record, beating Eric Lund of Milford’s mark set in 2006.
He “made a huge statement to the rest of the state in the 300 hurdles,” Gregory said.
Roth also ran the 400 for the first time this season and placed second in 51.21 seconds.
Aiden Henson won both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, with Thomas Belleau getting fourth in the 100 and fifth in the 200.
“We were hoping for 16 points in the sprints and we ended up with 26,” Gregory said.
A pair of relays rounded out the day for the Eagles.
“Wrapping up the scoring was the 400m relay team, where Aiden Henson ran a strong anchor leg to catch and pass Wilber-Clatonia to win second place, and the 1600m relay team, where Isaac Roth also closed out a strong anchor leg by passing two competitors for the win,” Gregory said.
The girls’ team didn’t have as good a day. Lilly Kenning broke the school record in the 400-meter dash, winning in 1:01.08, and won the 800 in 2:20.59.
Kenning now holds the school records in the 400, 800, 1,600 and 3,200 and was on the record-setting 4x800-meter relay.
Sarah Spahr won her second high jump title, clearing 5-6 to match her state winning height from 2023.
The final event, the 4x400-meter relay, saw the Eagles notch a season best time of 4:36.7, although the team of Jailey Roth, Haylee Nicholson, Staccia Johnson and Haley Brhel finished out of the top six.
In addition to Kenning’s struggles with a nagging injury, the Eagles were without Delaney Carraher who may have a stress fracture, Gregory said.
“Our team just doesn’t have the depth to overcome losing both of them, even for one race,” he said.
Milford will run its final district tune-up Thursday, May 2, at Raymond Central.
