Kirt Manion
kmanion@cherryroad.com
The Sidney track and field teams finished the 2025 spring season at the Class 1A State Qualifying Meet at Griswold on May 15.
Earning medals for the Sidney girls’ team were Jocelyn Tackett, second, high jump, 4’10”; Keyana Haggarty, third, long jump, 15’7.5”; fifth, 200 meters, 29.18; and Alexis Beatty, sixth, 100 meters, 14.38.
Top non-medal performances were by Alexis Barrett, 800 meters; Maddy Hume, 100 meter hurdles; and Czandrya Morgan, shot and discus;
The 4×100 team of Alexis Beatty, Addy Foster, Keyana Haggarty and Jocelyn Tackett ran fifth in a time of 55.27. Also competing in relays but not placing were the 4×200 team of Alexis Beatty, Addy Foster, Addy Jimeson and Jocelyn Tackett and the sprint medley team of Chloe Clark, Kaelynn Hale, Ashlyn Hayes and Alexis Barrett.
Earning medals for the Sidney boys’ team were Mason Dovel, fourth, shot, 40’11.5”; Michael Hensley, fifth, shot, 40’3”; Aiden Stenzel, fifth, high jump, 5’10”; Joseph Lutz, fifth, long jump, 17’7.75”; and Carter Buttry, sixth, 1600 meters, 4:53.34.
Top non-medal performances were by Kolt Payne, 100 meters; Rylan Behrends, 200 meters; Flynt Bell, 400 meters; Carter Jorgenson, 800 meters; and Mason Dovel, discus.
The 4×100 meter relay team of Michael Hensley, Kolt Payne, Tate Mount and Aiden Stenzel ran fourth in 46.91. The 4×200 meter relay team of Michael Hensley, Tate Mount, Aiden Stenzel and Kolt Payne ran fourth in 1:37.67. The 4×800 meter relay team of Carter Buttry, Calvin Johnson, Flynt Bell and Carter Jorgenson ran sixth in 9:22.87. Competing, but not placing in the 4×400 meter relay were Carter Buttry, Andreas Buttry, Zachary Boyd and Flynt Bell along with the 800 meter medley relay team of Joseph Lutz, Zachary Boyd, Max Lang and Andreas Buttry and the 1600 meter medley relay team of Will Hobbie Zachary Boyd, Max Lang and Max Mount.
Season Recap
Sidney’s track teams competed in 10 meets this year, losing two to weather-related cancellations including what would have been the first-ever home track meet at the renovated Cowboy stadium and its brand new all weather track.
The team highlight this year belonged to the Sidney boys’ team, which took second place in the final meet of the regular season, the Last Chance meet at Fremont-Mills.
The high point of the girls’ season came in the form of a conference championship performance by high jumper Jocelyn Tackett, who leaped a height of 5,’ which tied the school record for that event.
Turning to the district meet, Tackett leaped 4’10” and tied with Lauren Roberts of Stanton and Cloe Brown of East Mills. Roberts won the meet and qualified for state based on having fewer misses. Tackett had a chance to qualify, but due to the number of ties in the event and the fixed number of possible state qualifications, an alphabetical tiebreaker system was employed using school names. The tiebreaker began with As and since Sidney is down the list by that method, Tackett did not make the cut. Next year, the tiebreaker system will work back through the alphabet from the Zs.
Also narrowly missing on state was freshman Keyana Haggarty in the long jump.
On the boys’ side, Aiden Stenzel finished just one height from state qualification in the high jump. Stenzel has been a consistent scorer in the high jump, put together medal efforts in the open 100 and was also a member of the 4×100 and 4×200 meter relay teams.
Carter Buttry, who medaled at districts in the 1600 meter race, was also a key member of the team this year as he consistently scored top in the top three for both distance races.
Mason Dovel, a senior, also provided highlights. He was a district medal winner in the shot and was a consistent scorer in the discus and shot this season.
Unfortunately for the Sidney program, the highlights of the season didn’t continue to the state meet this year. It was the first time in 29 years that Sidney did not send any athletes to state.
Looking back at all the years, Coach Sears said the school is proud of that long state streak. The coach noted that the streak wasn’t something that the school talked about or emphasized but it was something that just continued to happen with some years being a larger number of qualifiers and other years being as few as just one qualifier that kept the streak going.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Sears said of the streak and its end. “We were proud. There is no doubt about that. It took a lot of good luck and a lot of great athletes.”
Sidney will hope to start a new streak next spring and Coach Sears said the program has some talented athletes coming back along with a solid group of junior high competitors.
