By Bob Hamar
bob.hamar@theindependent.com

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Independent/Scott Kingsley Devin Johnson wins the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.1 seconds during the Northwest Invitational Thursday afternoon. Independent/Scott Kingsley Tali Fredrickson leads all competitors to win the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.2 seconds Thursday afternoon at the Northwest Invitational. Click Thumbnails to View

But scoring 217 points was more than coach Dave Gee had expected.

"We have a lot of depth, but within that depth we have kids with a lot of quality," Gee said. "We won a lot of events today which kind of surprised me because some of these other schools had some really nice kids.

"We competed well. I guess I was kind of surprised when I see this point total, but we had a lot of kids who got seconds, thirds and fourths who really stepped up and competed well."

Adams Central was a distant second with 86 while Grand Island Central Catholic was third with 69.5.

Senior Devin Johnson again led the way for the Vikings as he has all season long. Johnson won the 100 (11.1 seconds), the 200 (22.4), the long jump (21 feet, 9 1/2 inches) and led off the 400 relay team (Johnson, Ethan Stutzman, Gary Shuda, Alex Earll) that won in 44.7.

Johnson's 22.4 time in the 200 was the most surprising performance of the meet. It had him looking forward to Monday's Central Nebraska Track and Field Championships sponsored by The Independent.

"It was pretty good for today," Johnson said. "It was my best time so far this year. Hopefully by Monday I can run a little bit lower."

Gee said the 22.4 time was good considering the cool weather conditions, but he's looking for much more from Johnson this season.

"He ran 22.1 last year," Gee said. "We're just waiting for a nice day where he can go out and hit that mark, and he's going to. I fully expect him to go under 22.0 in the 200. That's probably his best race.

"When he was a freshman, he couldn't even run that distance. Now we're toying with the idea of moving him up to the quarter (400 ) and maybe not the 100. Who knows? He's gotten so strong that we can do those things. It gives us a pleasant choice of what to do with him."

The 400 relay was almost disqualified when Johnson and Stutzman had trouble connecting on the first handoff.

"On the first hand off, we just barely got it," Johnson said. "I had to go around some people. Apparently on the third handoff we ran into Cozad again. But those are just little mistakes, nothing we can't fix."

Northwest's Hadley Cooksley won the shot put (54-4) and had a personal best in winning the discus with a 149-8 throw.

Travis Englund won both the high jump (6-0) and the triple jump (42-2 3/4) while Austan Pomajzl set a personal best of 13-8 in winning the pole vault.

GINW's Chris Thomson won the 3,200 (10:38.8). The Vikings 1,600 relay team of Kyree Randolph, Ben Paige, Stutzman and Jeff Mills won in 3:39.4 while the 3,200 relay (Randolph, Stutzman, Morgan Nason, Jory Pflasterer) won in 8:24.

"Even as cold as it was and not really a nice day, we had a lot of PRs on the day," Gee said. "Our kids were just ready for a meet. We lost the one last week at Central City that got postponed. We just needed to get a meet in, put kids on the track and they're going to go out and compete hard."

Central Catholic got wins by Brent Moravec in the 110 hurdles (15.2) and the 300 hurdles (41.5). He also finished second behind Johnson in the 100.

"Brent had a nice meet winning both hurdles," GICC coach Keith Kester said. "He ran a really nice 100. Devin Johnson is one of the better sprinters in the state. I think Brent ran as well as he's run all season and was very competitive against Devin."

Adams Central's girls won all three relays to help take the team title with 92 points. Northwest was second with 86.5 and Central Catholic third with 86.

Jalynda Hodson, who won the 1,600 in 6:00.4, was the Patriots' only individual winner.

"We won all three relays so obviously that helped a lot," Adams Central coach Sam Colvin said. "It's just our depth. I've talked about this all year long. Individually we don't have a lot of first, but we're picking up seconds and thirds. In the distances we scored three so that was good. We just kind of nickel and dime things."

Northwest did the same thing. Taylor Johnson, who won the triple jump (33-3 1/2), was the Vikings only winner on the day.

"She has been consistent," Northwest coach Kristin Caspar said. "She's had a little bit of trouble with her step, but she got that worked through today and jumped a little better. Now that she has gotten that fixed, I think she will concentrate more on her form."

Tali Fredrickson led Central Catholic with three individual wins. Fredrickson won the 100 hurdles (16.2), the 300 hurdles (50.2) and the long jump (16-2).

Kester said other runners like Liz McGowan (second in the 200) and Drew Kime (second in the 400 and 800) performed well.

"We had a lot of personal bests today," Kester said. "Honestly I didn't come expecting in the weather conditions we had to have a lot of personal bests. I wanted to see our kids come out and compete in this type of weather and see what kind of competitors we have."