Bearcat Track & Field News
Kearney High boys find a sprinter [04/10/2010]
By Kearney Hub - BUCK MAHONEY Hub Sports Editor
KEARNEY — Kearney High’s boys track team appears to have found another piece of the puzzle. A sprinter.
Senior Steve Stumbough won the 100- and 200-meter dashes and ran on Kearney’s winning 4x100 relay team as the Bearcats rolled up more than 200 points Friday to win the Kearney High Invitational at Joe Greeno Field.
The Bearcats, seeking their third straight state team championship, won their 119th straight invitational meet dating back to 1993. Kearney scored 201 points to runner-up Lincoln Southwest’s 125.
“We improved as a team today,” KHS coach Roger Mathiesen said. “We thought today’s meet would be an awfully lot closer.”
The Bearcats won 11 of the 17 events, scoring big in the sprints, something that was thought to be a hole with the graduation of Josh Mead and Vince Molina, who placed in the 100 at state the last two years.
Stumbough, meanwhile, never qualified for state. “He makes us an awful lot better,” Mathiesen said.
Stumbough started slow in the 100, but closed fast to post a winning time of 11.36 seconds. Jeff Seybold of Lincoln Southwest led much of the race but finished second at 11.40.
In the 200, it was Southwest’s Vino Brown who finished one-tenth of a second behind Stumbough, who posted a 22.84 winning time. Brown, the defending state champion in the long jump, won that event and the triple jump Friday.
“I’ve improved a lot. Last year, I couldn’t get under 23,” said Stumbough, who won the 200 at last week’s Columbus Invitational in 22.31 seconds.
A year ago, he was battling to advance past the preliminaries at most meets.
“We thought he would help us, but to say he would run this fast this early would be awfully disingenuous of us,” Mathiesen said.
The reason? His health. Injuries have hampered Stumbough since junior high. He hasn’t been able to consistently work out or go through weight training until this year.
Stumbough said he has increased his strength and focused on improving his technique. “My upper body is usually tense, but I’ve learned to loosen up and not be so tense so I run more relaxed,” he said.
The results have made him a faster runner this year. “I was looking forward to (this year). … I was curious to see how good I could do now that Mead and Molina are gone,” he said.
Brandon Landanger, who won both hurdles races, joined Stumbough and Brown as the only boys to win two individual events.