By Bob Hamar
bob.hamar@theindependent.com

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Independent/Scott Kingsley Brent Moravec finishes ahead of Shelton's Cody Webben (left) and Heartland Lutheran's Jesse Bartels during the 110-meter high hurdles during the Central Catholic Invitational. Moravec won the event. Independent/Scott Kingsley Kayla Mulligan finishes ahead of Wood River's Rachel Krolikowski while running the anchor leg of the 3200-meter relay during the Central Catholic Invitational. The Crusaders finished fifth in the event. Click Thumbnails to View

The Grand Island Central Catholic senior showed that by winning three events Friday at the GICC/Knights of Columbus Invitational. Moravec's wins led the Crusaders to the team title 130 points, well ahead of second place Adams Central with 111.5.

"I'm pretty happy," Moravec said. "I can't complain.

"I couldn't run for about two months, then I started running. Track has gotten me more in shape now."

But he's not there yet. Moravec, who will walk on to play football at Nebraska next fall, knows that and so does GICC coach Keith Kester.

"Brent is in pretty good shape," Kester said. "From my standpoint, he's still not in real good shape compared to where he's going to get. That alone tells you there's a big upside still. We just have to get him into that kind of shape.

"He's competing extremely well right now, but when you have that much time off, where ever he is now he can get a lot better. Brent knows that."

Moravec won the 100-meter dash (11.4 seconds) along with the 110 high hurdles (15.2) and the 300 intermediate hurdles (41.7).

"I wanted to do a little better in the high hurdles, but I hit a few hurdles along the way," Moravec said. "It (his leg) started bleeding pretty bad."

Moravec, who ran 14.9 last year, was hoping to break the meet record in the 110 hurdles of 15.0, but that's only the beginning of his goals for that event. He also has his sights set on the school record of 14.7 and the 14.6 his father, Mark, ran as a high school at Aquinas.

"I think it is (attainable) by the end of the season," Moravec said of beating his dad's time. "It will be hard though."

Kester said Moravec has the right attitude in place to have a good senior season.

"One of the nice things with Brent is he had a good day, but he has a lot bigger goals by the end of the year," Kester said. "He obviously wants to do well, but he wants to get better every week. He knows it takes a lot of hard work to get where he wants to go."

The Crusaders had a number of athletes contribute to the win. Dylan Redman came away with victories in both the 200 (24.4) and the 400 (53.6). Kester said Aaron Soto also had a good day with a second in the 400 and a strong performance on the relays.

Kelly Zimmerman also finished second in both the shot put and the discus as well.

"There were a lot of kids who really contributed," Kester said. "When you score 130 points in a meet, you have to get a lot of contributions from a lot of kids. We knew coming into the meet that we had an opportunity to score quite a few points and we would need them all if we were going to beat some other teams like Adams Central."

Adams Central ran away with the girls team title with 127 points despite winning only two events. Wood River was second with 78. Central Catholic finished sixth with 40.5.

Adams Central's 3,200 relay team took first and Rebecca Rockefeller was first in the pole vault (9-feet).

"We got a bunch of seconds and fourths and fifths," Adams Central coach Sam Colvin said. "Going in with 45 girls out, the depth I thought would be a big factor in most of our meets.

"We're able to score a lot of points in a lot of different areas. We won't always be in first, but we should be right up there. I'm really pleased with the effort and how we scored the points."

Central Catholic was led again by senior thrower Alicia Statler who won both the shot put (38-11 1/2) and the discus (114-7).

"Alicia Statler had another good day for us," Kester said. "She had another good throw winning the shot put. Alicia has thrown really well now two weeks in a row.

"And winning the discus too, Alicia has really gotten off to a nice start for us. I'm really happy to see how well she's throwing at this point."

Kester was also pleased with the effort of Drew Kime. The junior ran a PR to finish second in the 400 and was second in the 800 as well.