KEARNEY – Only the most elite youth runners probably think about the possibility of winning cross country races once they get to high school, and that wasn’t Sydney Wendt.
Wendt didn’t run in middle school, but she’s making history now for Lincoln High. When the senior won the Lincoln Public Schools championship last week, she was believed to be the first Lincoln High girl to win that meet in more than 30 years.
And then Wendt made history again on Wednesday as the girls champion at the 11-team Heartland Athletic Conference championships.
Wendt won with a determined finish, not leading the race at any point until the final 70 meters of the race after Kearney senior Dawson Kreycik had led for most of the race.
Wendt finished the 5,000-meter race at the Kearney Country Club in 19 minutes, 11 seconds. Kreycik was second in 19:14, and Lincoln Southwest junior Meredith Marsh was third in 19:24.
Wendt was pushed into cross country by her sister, Mia, who ran cross country at Lincoln High and now competes for Nebraska Wesleyan.
“I never ran in middle school or anything,” Wendt said. “I didn’t even want to join cross country when I got to high school, but my sister made me come to summer conditioning and everybody on this team was so welcoming and they met with so much love and support.
“So from my freshman year, I realized that I might have some potential here, and I just kept working at it. And now we’re here. So it feels kind of surreal. I never expected it at all. I was not a runner.”
And now, in a sport where Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln East and Fremont have often had the top girls runners, Lincoln High has one too.
“Someone told me we hadn’t had a city champion for girls since 1991,” Wendt said. “It makes me feel really proud because I love my school. I love being able to represent them and do it for the school and for the team.”
About one mile into Wednesday’s race, Wendt was shocked to hear she was in 15th place and knew she had to speed up. Even with about 1,000 meters to go, she was 10 seconds behind the leader.
But after she and Dawson briefly fought for the lead near the finish, Wendt had the better kick.
“It was definitely a fight to get back up there,” she said.
It was her fourth career win, including three this season.
Lincoln Southwest defended its girls team championship from last season, with a close 43-47 win over runner-up Kearney. Lincoln East was third, Norfolk fourth and Lincoln High fifth.
Southwest’s other top runners were Piper Petersen, Bella Miron, Hannah Soucie and Izzy Gilbertson.
The Lincoln North Star boys continued its undefeated season and won the conference championship for the first time in 22 years of the program. That comes after finishing second in the conference in 2003, 2020 and last year.
North Star had 42 team points. Lincoln East had 70 points to finish second with four runners in the top 16.
North Star senior Josiah Bitker was the individual champion in 15:54. He’s just the third conference champion from the school, joining Eric Noel and Liem Chot.
North Star had three of the top four finishers, with Tyler Smith in second and J’Shawn Afuh in third. The Gators also had Titus Bitker in 15th and Pablo Chavez in 20th.
“Everybody ran fast,” North Star coach Brian Wandzilak said. “Our fifth guy (Chavez) had at least a 30-second PR today. He just ran great.”
North Star hadn’t won at this meet before, in part because Fremont is often one of the best teams in the conference and state. But this year, the “stars aligned,” Wandzilak said.
“Obviously, our top three, that’s huge for us,” he said. “And we’ve had some young guys who have developed well. They had a good track season and put good summers in.”
The junior varsity team champions were the Kearney girls and Fremont boys.
Reach Brent C. Wagner at bwagner@journalstar.com or 402-473-7435.
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Brent Wagner
Husker volleyball/women’s basketball reporter
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