LCC’s Puppe wins State Gold
OMAHA — Deagan Puppe saved his two best performances for when they mattered most.
The LCC junior hurdler ran a personal-best time in the preliminaries, then came back to win a close race in the finals to claim the Class C 110-meter title at the Nebraska State Track and Field Championships.
Puppe easily won his preliminary heat on Friday at Omaha Burke Stadium, running a personal-best time of 15.05 seconds, then fought off Clayton Berry of Southern Valley and Kamdyn Swartz of Bishop Neumann, his time of 15.18 seconds bettering the others by two and four-hundredths of a second, respectively.
“I was like ‘Please let it be me’ when I looked up at the scoreboard,” a smiling Puppe said after receiving his medal. “When I saw it, I had a really big smile on my face. It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I started running hurdles in seventh grade. I really wanted to get that done today and I did.”
Puppe said the race in the preliminary was much easier than the final.
“My prelim was a relatively normal race and I had first place by quite a bit, but that second race was really hard. I hit the first and second hurdles, and also hit the last two so it came down to that last 10-meter sprint. I really had to dig for it.”
Puppe also ran in the 300-meter hurdles preliminary on Friday. His time of 45.52 was not good enough to reach the finals, and he ended up accounting for all of LCC’s 10 team points, which was good for a tie for 24th in the Class C team race.
Daniel Puppe also ran in the 110-meter hurdle preliminaries on Friday, finishing with a time of 16.26 seconds that did not qualify for the finals.
In girls action, Berniece McCorkindale and Erica Wolfgram both represented the Lady Bears in state competition. McCorkindale finished 19th overall in the shot put on Friday with a best toss of 34 feet, 8 1/2 inches, while Wolfgram placed 24th in the high jump with a best effort of 4-8.
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