Benson Wins Three Golds, Silver And Driver Wins B Gold In Pole Vault

The 2011 Nebraska Track and Field Championships concluded on Saturday after two days of competition by athletes from Minden, Axtell and Wilcox-Hildreth.
The area had lots of great performances from each school.
The Minden Whippet state track qualifiers were led by senior Craig Driver. Driver realized his dream and became the gold medal champion on Saturday morning in the Class B pole vault.
Driver’s winning vault was 15’6″ to earn his first ever gold medal. Driver progressively got better each of his three trips to the state meet. In 2009, he went 14’0″ and captured the bronze medal. Last year in 2010, Driver vaulted 14’10” to take the silver then culminated his Whippet career with the gold medal in 2011.
Minden’s 4×800 relay team of Thomas Sinsel, Carter Yelken, Chris Shelton and Rory Bruning competed on Friday afternoon to get the running events in the B and D division underway. The relay team placed 12th with a time of 8:36.87.
Brooke Kissinger for the Lady Whippets ran in the B girls 400-meters on Friday posting a time of 1:02.69.
The Axtell Wildcats were led by Brandon Benson. Benson made a splash in the 2011 D boys field.
Benson, a junior, won three individual gold medals along with a silver in the 4×100 relay.
Benson nearly single-handedly got the Cats the D boys runner-up trophy.
Benson set a new record in the D boys pole vault on Friday. Benson was the only vaulter in the field to clear 14’0″ which he did on his first attempt. Benson kept going and he would eventually stop at 14’9.5″ which broke the 14’5″ record set by Shickley vaulter William Mick earlier this year and the state meet record held by Scott Moore of Alma set in 1995.
Benson was also busy on the track winning his heat of the 100-meters in a time of 11.23 and also was second in his heat of the 200-meters in a time of 23.30.

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