Summerland boys finish second at Sandhills Invite

The Bobcats earned 16 medals en route to a second-place team finish at the Sandhills Invite, held April 3, in Bassett.

West Holt won the team title, scoring 131 points, while the Bobcats finished with 93. Valentine ended third, with 60 points; North Central, fourth, 56 and Ainsworth, fifth, 52.

Bobcats won three medals in high jump. Ruger Switzer cleared 5' 10, securing the gold medal. Ryan Rifer jumped 5' 8 to finish second. Carter Bergman secured the fifth-place medal after jumping 5' 6.

Alec Schindler won gold in triple jump, with a leap of 39' 4.5. Preston Hoke finished 10th, jumping 35' 4.

Michael Koenig jumped 19' 2.75 to win bronze in long jump. Switzer finished fourth, reaching 18' 10.5 and Parker Napier ended in seventh, landing at 18' 7.25.

Two Bobcats brought home medals in shot put. Gavin Whiting claimed silver with a toss of 41' 8.25 and Joe Ahlers threw 41' 11.5, placing third.

Levi Cronk ended 12th, throwing 35' 8.25 and Kevin Verdin-Lopez threw 20' 7, to finish in 45th.

Whiting picked up a second medal, after throwing 110' 5 in discus. He placed fourth. Cronk ended in 12th place, throwing 94' 9; Colby Hupp, 17th, 89' 8; Ahlers, 20th, 88' 3 and Verdin-Lopez, 41st, 56' 7.

The pole vault trio of Sam Cheatum, Napier, and Ethan Kester missed out on medals but had successful vaults. Cheatum ended seventh, clearing 8' 6; Napier, ninth, 8' and Kester, 11th, 8'.

Trevor Thomson led the 100m preliminaries with a time of 11.45 and ended third in the final race, running 11.61.

Kendrick Schroeder finished 16th, running 12.55, while Jaykwon Petite ran 12.66, placing 19th.

Thomson won gold in the 200m, running 24.04. His brother, Connor, ran 28.03, finishing 25th.

In the 400m, Cheatum ran 1:01.85, placing 14th. Shayne Jenkins finished 17th, running 1:03.31; Connor Thomson, 21st, 1:04.16 and Colby Hupp, 25th, 1:13.03.

AJ Hobbs earned the sixth-place medal in the 1600. He ran 5:45.79. Caden Mendoza placed 13th, with a 6:41.61 mark.

Schindler and Koenig finished fourth and fifth, respectively in the 110m hurdles. Schindler ran 17:41; Koenig, 18.15.

In the 300m hurdles, Schindler earned the silver medal, running 45.69, a season record for the sophomore. Hoke placed 11th, crossing in 49.56 and Koenig ended 12th, in 49.57.

The 4x100 team of Petite, Schroeder, Schindler and Trevor Thomson ran 47.31. They placed fourth.

In the 4x400, Cheatum, Jenkins, Napier and Rifer placed seventh, with a time of 4:15.58.

Hoke, Rifer, Hobbs and Mendoza finished seventh in the 4x800. They ran 10:36.15.