Axtell, Neb. – The Axtell Wildcats have been at or near the top of Class D track and field for quite some time. This past weekend, they earned their fourth team state championship in school history scoring 56 points to tie with McCool Junction. It was their third championship since 2018 and capped off a season that rarely saw Axtell anywhere else but first place.
Boys head coach Eric Havranek was more than pleased with the effort his team put forth all season long. The Wildcats put up top performance after top performance on their way to winning nearly every meet this season including the FKC and D-6 District meets. The 14-year Axtell coach said it was special to come out on top in Omaha with only one gold medal win.
The Wildcats may not have gotten the most first-place finishes in Class D but were able to make it up with a full team effort. Five individual athletes medaling in six events combined with medals from all three relay teams put Axtell where they needed to be in the end. Coach Havranek noted that 56 points in Class D is almost always enough for first place, and they’d take that score any day.
Axtell was able to improve on last year’s finish in Omaha. The Wildcats tied with Mullen and Riverside with 33 team points, earning second place in the 2023 Class D state meet. This year, the difference came in the finals where Axtell runners set personal records five times. Havranek made it clear that every event matters in the end. He was proud of his team for pushing as hard as they could throughout the season, “We qualified nine boys in 12 events. For eight them to place in nine events, that’s the best I think we could’ve done for those two days.”
Axtell’s medal winners were:
- Cayson Havranek (10): 200 M: 6th
- Luc Lopez (11): 400 M: 4th, 800 M: 1st
- Keyton Cole (12): 800 M: 2nd
- Tyler Hanson (12): 3200 M: 4th
- Jake Halvorsen (11): 110 Hurdles: 4th, 300 Hurdles: 2nd
- 4×100 Relay: Elijah Bergstrom (11), Jake Halvorsen, Carson Lindau (12), Cayson Havranek: 6th
- 4×400 Relay: Cayson Havranek, Keyton Cole, Elijah Bergstrom, Luc Lopez: 6th
- 4×800 Relay: Luc Lopez, Isaiah Springer (11), Tyler Hanson, Keyton Cole: 3rd
