District soccer

The Grand Island Northwest boys soccer team is one win away from qualifying for the Class B State Tournament. The Vikings used a three-goal explosion in overtime to knock off Columbus Lakeview 4-1 on Tuesday in the semifinals.

Northwest will have to get past York in Thursday's championship. The fifth-seeded Dukes have already eliminated fourth-seeded Hastings and top-seeded Columbus Lakeview.

If the Vikings get their offense going like they did against Lakeview, then they'll likely make the trip to Omaha next week. However, York has proven it can win the low scoring ones, including a 1-0 shootout win over Scotus in the semis. If rain can be avoided, it should be an interesting, well-played final.

White at it again

Broken Bow's Katie White is at it again. She won the Class B state 3,200 as a freshman in 11:34.5 and again as a sophomore in 11:40.5. Injuries prevented her from performing at her best last year, but on Saturday White won the Southwest Conference title in a personal best 11:09.6.

You would think with good conditions and someone to push her, White could get under 11:00. The problem is there probably is no one else in Class B that can run that pace. Class A leader Emily Sisson of Millard North , who ran 10:21 in California a couple of weeks ago, would be able to pull White along but obviously the two will never race head to head.

So White will just have to continue running by herself. We'll see in the coming weeks how good she can be.

CNTC coming Monday

We're just three days away from the16th annual Central Nebraska Track and Field Championships sponsored by The Independent. It should be another interesting day at Memorial Stadium in Grand Island. The weather has prevented some of the athletes from performing at their best, but we'll likely see some outstanding performances on Monday.

Keep an eye on the Grand Island Senior High girls track team. The defending Class A state champions are likely to walk away with a bucket full of medals. Junior sprinter Allison Jorgensen has stepped up another level with this season. Jorgensen and defending Class A 100 and 200 champ Alex Armes could burn up the track in those events.

Armes may well run on the 1,600 relay as well which will shave several seconds off the Islanders' time.

Schwieger signs

Grand Island continues its tradition of sending baseball players to the college level. Pitcher Eric Schwieger is the latest, as he signed a letter-of-intent on Wednesday to play at Wayne State.
Schwieger returned two weeks ago from a lengthy absence due to a shoulder injury suffered last summer. He's proven to be a big addition to the Islanders, who are looking to get things headed in the right direction before districts start up in two weeks.
Untimely errors and inconsistent pitching along with injuries have kept Grand Island from stringing together wins.
Still, Schwieger's signing is nice. Each year, a handfull of Islanders move on to the college diamonds. Whether it is Nebraska, UNK, UNO, Wayne State, the state's NAIA schools or jucos, G.I. is well-represented.