Fremont boys, girls sweep Heartland Conference titles

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By BRENT C. WAGNER / Lincoln Journal Star

People at the finish line used to ask if the Fremont boys cross country team won the Heartland Conference championship.

Nowadays, they only ask how many points the Tigers won by. The answer this year was 51, and that makes eight straight conference titles for the Fremont boys.

Thursday at Pioneers Park, Fremont finished with 32 points, followed by Lincoln Southeast (83) and Lincoln Southwest (84).

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Lincoln East runner Cam Penne, right, grimaces as he sprints toward the finish line ahead of Lincoln Southwest's Evean Brown during their meet at Pioneers Park on Thursday, October, 9, 2008. (Jacob Hannah)

Lincoln East runner Cam Penne, right, grimaces as he sprints toward the finish line ahead of Lincoln Southwest's Evean Brown during their meet at Pioneers Park on Thursday, October, 9, 2008. (Jacob Hannah)

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The Fremont girls also won the team title. Lincoln Southwest's Parker Schoen and Fremont's Holly Bussa were individual champions.

Fremont is once again one of the top boys teams in the state. The Tigers were led by Jose Nuno (second), Mitch Hunt (third) and Britt Jensen (fifth). Hunt has missed the past three weeks because of a foot injury.

"We ran as well as we could expect," Fremont coach Sean McMahon said. "We put four (runners) in the top 10 and five in the top 12, so that was really exciting."

Without Hunt, Fremont was second behind Millard West at the Nebraska-Kearney Invitational, the biggest regular-season meet of the year. McMahon likes his team's chances going into districts and state.

"The thing that makes this team special is they are a real team," he said. "They believe in working for the good of the group and put the team ahead of themselves. Some years you get that, and sometimes it's not as prevalent. It certainly is in this group."

Schoen has won all six meets he's competed in this season. He took the lead early and covered the 5,000 meters in 16 minutes, 29 seconds, which was good for an 18-second victory.

While winning the UNK meet was big, Schoen says winning the conference meet against Fremont's talented runners also was special. As for his breakout season, his consistency has been the most pleasing thing.

Last season, Schoen was seventh at the Heartland meet, one week after placing second at the LPS Championships.

"It's nice to consistently win," Schoen said. "Even when I was sick and not feeling the best, I still came out and won. Last year I was so up-and-down. Being a sophomore, I didn't have that much experience.

"That's what I'm liking this year. If you look back historically at the good runners in the state, they've been consistent each race."

Bussa repeated as conference champion, but improved her time from last season by 23 seconds. She ran the 4,000 meters in 15:17. Britni Waller (Lincoln East), Sigornie Pfefferle (Grand Island), Kayla Fenske (Fremont) and Hannah Schroeder (Fremont) rounded out the top five.

While Omaha Marian wasn't full-strength at the UNK meet, Fremont handily beat the Crusaders. Marian has won the Class A state title the past five seasons.

Fremont hopes to be close to Omaha Marian in two weeks during the state meet at the Kearney County Club.

"That's what we're hoping for," Bussa said.

Reach Brent C. Wagner at 473-7435 or bwagner@journalstar.com.