The American Legion Post Brown-Hays Post 289 is pleased to announce that Brogan Dunlap and Brennon Vaughan of HTRS was generously sponsored by Post 289 and will join nearly 270 other high school juniors from across Nebraska participating in the American Legion Cornhusker Boys’ State Program, June 2 – 8, 2024, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln downtown campus. The annual citizenship program, sponsored by the NebraskaAmerican Legion, is designed to provide youths with a better understanding of how city, county and state governments operate.

Seniors Madison Fender, Philip Layne, Oscar Machini, Trey Marteney, Nicco Meglar-Staroverov. Juniors Logan Maloley, Cameron Ottersberg, Cara Pierce, Neveah Blecha, Jett Farwell, Mason Fisher,Anthony Kling, Jesse McLaughlin, Drew Menninga.

Assistant Coaches Tyler Ferebee, Candy Sejkora, Jeff Bacon, Emily Agena, Austin Martin Coach Strong’s season outlook: “Our strengths this year are that we have good junior and senior leadership with State Track experience and overall experience in many events. Our weakness could be that we have a lack of depth in some areas. We return seven girls and ten boys as letterwinners with 29 athletes out. I hope everyone on our team will contribute in some way this season. Our seniors and juniors will have an impact along with the sophomores and freshmen adding some good depth as the season goes along. Our goals this sseason are that we will strive to be competitive in all individual events for both boys and girls; develop some good relay teams that score in every meet; try to get in the best possible fitness by the end of the year and to qualify as many athletes as we can for the State Track Meet. This will be tough since almost every team we compete against on our schedule has some good individual athletes, but our team will meet the challenges as a team with hard work and a great attitude. This year’s saying is, “Character is Power” and we are looking for some great moments and memories throughout the season. The upperclassmen leadership is good and we are working hard to develop the younger athletes for success. We are looking for a fun, enjoyable and competitive year.”

College Graduate of: Hastings College Assistant Coach Dan Ingwerson Coach Blecha’s season outlook: “Our team is very young this season. We have five golfers this year, two of which are returners.

- denotes letterwinners Seniors *JJ McQueen, Clayton Howe, Alex Jurach, Matheus Valloto, Zachary Hedden. Juniors *Laramie Glathar, Alyssa Askren, Izybel Hammer, Lily Wamsley, *Hunter Bohling, *Brogan Dunlap, Jake Manning.

April 9 - Lewiston Invitational @ Pawnee City - 9:30 a.m. April 16 - FCSH Irish Invite @ Syracuse, 9:30 a.m.

Juniors *Carson Refsdal, *Isaac Seitz. Freshmen Grey Sherman, Johnathan Koch, Luke Hunzeker..

April 9 - HTRS Invitational @ Kirkman’s Golf Course 9:00 a.m. April 15 - @ J-V Falls City Invitational, 2:30 p.m.

Assistant Coaches Donna Railsback, Caleb Lempka, Michelle Glathar, Jamie Stice Coach Engles’ season outlook: “We have some really athletic kids that I think will be very successful this season. There are tons of things going on in the Spring (music, State speech, FFA, etc.) that cause a lot of kids to miss practice. When we have a chance to get kids coming to practice consistently and can work with them more, good things are going to happen. Weaknesses for us right now are injuries. Sophomores Lillian Bowen and Elie Bstandig are both struggling with injuries early. We are hoping to get them both back, but aren’t sure yet on the timeline. Both girls will do well in individual events and relays. Elie has been working on Shot Put and Discus and Lillian loves the 400 and 800 M. runs which she qualified for in the State meet last year. We return six letterwinners including Elie and Lillian. Senior JJ McQueen also returns in the 100 and 200 M. Dashes. JJ has qualified for State in both of those events in the last two years and will run track for Midland College next year. Juniors, Brogan Dunlap and Hunter Bohling return in the Pole Vault and senior, Matheus Valloto is a foreign exchange student who will run the 100 and 200 as well as the 400 M. relay. Several of our kids have set their goals high and hope to qualify for the State Track Meet. Our biggest meets besides Districts will be the Pioneer Conference and the MUDECAS meets. Many are hoping to medal there and we also have a handful of athletes who just want to improve each week. As for toughest opponents, this really depends on the event. Again, those kids hoping to qualify for State have already checked out their District opponents and are hoping to build each week to be ready in May.”

Coach Gabehart’s season outlook: “Our weakness is definitely our number of track participants. We currently have fifteen athletes on our roster with ten boys and five girls. This will limit our ability to score well as a team. Our strength is that we do have some experienced seniors returning in the throws. We should be able to score in the boys’ Shot Put and the boys’ Discus every meet. On the boys’ side, seniors Jaxon Janssen and Tristen Ray will have the greatest impact for us in the throws. Jaxon Janssen is a returning state qualifier in the Shot Put and will be looking to return to State again this year. Tristen Ray just missed out on State last year in the Discus and will be looking to qualify this year. Junior Kaden Wager also returns as a letterwinner for us and will make an impact for our boys’ team in the sprints. He placed 6th last year at Districts in the 100 M. Dash. We have been trying to make some improvements on his sprint mechanics this season and it has already started to show. Kaden placed 5th at the Pioneer Indoor Meet with a time of 7.48 in the 60 M. Dash. Everett Bohling also returns as a letterwinner for us this season. On the girls’ side, freshman Justice Currie will have the greatest impact for us in the sprints. She has already proven her speed this year by placing 5th at the Pioneer Indoor Meet with a time of 8.86 in the 60 M. Dash. Our main goal is to develop our athletes. It is more important to us that our athletes get better on an individual level. We strive to achieve new personal records each meet and compete to the best of our abilities. We do have a couple of athletes who have a good chance at qualifying for State. Hopefully we can get at least one athlete to qualify for the State Meet this year. Our toughest competitors will be teams that our athletes have to go up against at the District Meet. We need them to score individually in the top two against schools in our District to qualify for State. Teams that we will have to outcompete are B-D-S, Diller/Odell, Dorchester, FCSH, HTRS, Johnson-Brock, Lourdes CC, McCool Junction, Meridian, Pawnee City and Sterling. I wouldn’t say our team has any rivals when it comes to track, however I know each athlete has their own rivals in their individual events. I know our boys will be very competitive this year in the throws with the additions of B-D-S and McCool Junction in our District and B-D-S will especially make it very challenging for our boys to qualify for State in the throws.”