It was pretty clear the Gopher Conference meet was going to come down to the United South Central/Alden-Conger girls’ team and the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva girls’ team. The only question that remained to be answered was if the Panthers would have enough firepower to catch the Rebels.

NRHEG, which scored 172 points, came up 15 1/2 points short of usurping USC/A-C Tuesday at the conference meet in Wells. It was the second straight year that the Panthers lost by 15 1/2 points to the Rebels.

“We gave USC/A-C a run for their money, but they proved to be a little better,” said Panthers head coach Duey Ferber.

The Panthers earned all-conference recognition in four events with senior Heather Schmit and sophomore Alyssa Kerkhoff winning two events each.

Schmit won both the long jump and the triple jump while Kerkhoff took first in the 200-meter dash and 400.

Schmit recorded distances of 16-feet, 6-inches in the long jump and 33-feet, 5 1/2 inches in the triple jump.

Kerkhoff scored a win in the 200 with a time of 27.69 seconds and in the 400 with a time of 63.2 seconds.

The 4×200 relay team of Abby Crabtree, Alerah Neumann, Tatum Wacholz and Carlie Wagner recorded the other first place finish for NRHEG with a time of 1:56.57.

The United South Central/Alden-Conger boys’ track and field team cruised to its fifth consecutive Gopher Conference title Tuesday in Wells.

The Rebels scored 208 points scored more than double the points runner-up Waterville-Elysian-Morristown scored, 92 1/2.

The NRHEG boys’ team placed fourth at the meet, scoring 76 points to finish behind Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, which scored 91 points.

The Panthers had three wins on the day, including Ryan Panuska in the pole vault. Panuska won the event by clearing 11-feet, 6-inches.

Keith Billing won the 100-meter dash for NRHEG with a time of 11.27 seconds and the 4×100 relay team of Alexander Nicolay, Greg Ramaker, Tim Bartness and Billing won with a time of 46.41.

The Panthers went 1-2 in the pole vault with Bartness added a second-place finish and the 4×200 relay team took second with a time of 1:39.33.