DEARBORN – Since 2019, North Platte has hung up a combined nine state banners in cross-country and track and field with the goal to add to the collection this spring.
North Platte junior Lindsay Ramsey was a key leg to the second-place 4x200 en route to the Lady Panthers winning back-to-back Class 2 State Track and Field Titles.
The boys have finished in fourth place at state cross-country the last two falls and the girls have rung in back-to-back championships in track and field after being a runner-up in 2021. Having to replace talented athletes is easier said than done and the Lady Panthers have some big shoes to fill in the departure of nine seniors, six of which were all-state.
“What I’ve been telling the kids is our end goals are the exact same, it’s just that we’re going to have to take a different path this year,” North Platte sprinting coach Matt Keraus said.
Since 2021, North Platte has thrived in relays with all four teams making it to state each year and only one not being all-state – the 2022 4x800 missed by 0.67 seconds. Out of the 11, four were gold medals, six were silver medals and one was a bronze medal.
“Relays are going to be a little more difficult for us this year, especially our two-time state champion 4x100 that was state medalist for three years in a row; we lost that entire team. We have a couple of freshman girls who could take those spots, Myla Bailey and Emily Goodlet, then Morgan Ball and Gracie Williams are going to be helpers for us in the relay category,” Keraus said.
Williams was the lead-leg in the state champion 4x400 that clinched the second consecutive state title on the last event of the weekend. Junior sprinter Lindsay Ramsey was the second leg of that relay and is a four-time individual state medalist, being the reigning state champion in the 400-meter dash.
“She’ll be one of our leaders, who has stepped up in a leadership role. Lindsay had such a successful basketball season becoming all-state in that as well,” Keraus said.
Brianna DeBord and Chloe Heckman will lead North Platte’s long-distance unit. Caitlyn Cummings has dealt with some injuries in the past and is ready to attack her senior season as well.
“We have Brianna (DeBord) and Chloe (Heckman) coming back, both all-staters in the fall and in the spring,” North Platte long-distance coach Brendan Cary said. “We’re in this place where we graduate a lot off, but at the same time we have some good kids coming back in as freshmen so it’s probably going to take us a couple of weeks into the season by going into meets to really figure out kind of where we settle on everything.”
The North Platte boys are the polar opposite, having strengths in the field events. The only state qualifiers last year were Noah Heckman in the 2-mile and Corbin Britting in the 200-meter dash, neither of which medaled.
“Sophomore Cameron Wortham and senior Jesse Williams will throw for us and junior Coen Rainsbarger is going to be very helpful in the long jump and pole vault. We have a couple of new kids who might help us in the field events, like Caleb Wright in the high jump,” Keraus said.
Noah Heckman has qualified for state in the 3,200-meter run each of the last three years and will run the mile alongside Drake Keraus who will likely also be in the open 800. Most of the boys who haven’t made deep runs in track before will rely on their experience from other sports, like football that made it to the Class 1 State Championship last fall.
“Noah (Heckman) and Drake (Keraus) have been there with cross-country and some of these other guys like Jesse (Williams) and Corbin (Britting) have been there with football. Now, these are guys with a good chunk of state experience, competitive experience, and we’re kind of taking a run with that,” Cary said.