Six months ago, North Platte had never won a state championship in any girls’ sports but in the aftermath of a spring track and field state title, the Lady Panthers added some hardware with a 2022 Class 2 State Cross-Country plaque after dominating the final race of the season at Gans Creek on Nov. 5.
After winning the first cross-country state title in school history, the North Platte girls hold up the Class 2 first-place plaque in celebratory fashion at Gans Creek on Nov. 5.
The Lady Panthers have been progressing and building up the program in recent years, searching for a state championship. This season, with an experienced squad and a few talented underclassmen, North Platte dominated in the Class 2 State Race finishing with 64 points, which was comfortably above second place Hermann who was 25 points away from the champions.
“I have no words, I have never been so proud,” North Platte head cross-country coach Brendan Cary said. “Every year we’ve had groups of kids come in and just keep moving the bar to the next spot and we talked this week about how we don’t want to stay in the shadows, we want to stand on the shoulders, and we get to look a little bit further and do something else, something new.”
Sophomore Brianna DeBord holds the Class 2 State Champion plaque up as the Lady Panthers walked off the podium in the aftermath of the race at Gans Creek on Nov. 5.
North Platte has been knocking on the door of a state title with three consecutive seasons of bringing home a banner. The Lady Panthers brought home third place last season and were the runners-up in each of the two years prior – doing so in Class 2 in 2020 and Class 1 in 2019 – and were finally able to come out in first place this season.
“It feels so good and so unreal that we finally did it,” senior Shelby Lingle said. “It’s been four years for most of us seniors since we had come in second twice and third last year, so it feels great to finally get first.”
Lingle was one of four seniors to cross the finish line at Gans Creek on the historical day as she was joined by Jessa Cassity, Lonee French and Alaina Scroggins. Those four were all a part of the first track and field state championship team last spring and while the Lady Panthers looked to be the favorites in cross-country before the season began, the girls didn’t give that much thought and just went out and took it one day at a time throughout the fall.
North Platte seniors Shelby Lingle finished her cross-country careers on a high note, leading the Lady Panthers to a state championship while also finishing as an all-state individual runner at the Class 2 State Meet.
“We didn’t talk about it much this year, we just talked about doing our job and these guys knew it was there, but it wasn’t the main thing. The main thing was, how do we get better, how do we show up to our workouts and take care of our bodies,” Cary said.
While the seniors brought in experience and stamina, it was the underclassmen who crossed the finish line first at state. Freshman Chloe Heckman and sophomore Brianna DeBord both cracked the top-10 to finish as all-state – which is the first 25 runners to finish – as individuals.
Heckman ended her remarkable freshman campaign with a seventh-place finish in 20:16 and DeBord wasn’t too far behind as she took ninth place with a time of 20:21.4. Cassity and Lingle helped North Platte keep its points low with a pair of top-20 finishes to also finish as all-state runners.
Heckman, DeBord and Cassity ran in a small trio for a majority of the season and consistently finished close together, and at state the senior was the third of the talented runners to cross the finish line – doing so in 20:25.1 – which was good enough for 11th place. Lingle finished in 19th place with a time of 21:00.6.
“I think we just put the work all together. We got the younger girls and everybody to buy in a program and to buy into the coaches and just believe in each other,” Lingle said.
After the four North Platte all-state runners was French who claimed 50th place with a time of 22:24.7 and Scroggins who took 78th place in 22:57.3. Freshman Lily Schaffart ended the race with a time of 23:32.9 to wrap up the day for the Lady Panthers and give them a first-place finish overall.
“We’re always talking about chop wood, carry water; just do the little things with just great reliability. They aren’t doing a sport that is always going to get all the publicity, so they have to do things that most people aren’t willing to do, and they are so good about doing it and today, it paid off,” Cary said.