By Chris Parker
Jack Cheaney’s senior year could not have gotten off to a worse start, but it could not have ended any better.
The Nevada senior was the area’s leading rusher on the football field as a junior with 2,056 yards. He was prepared to defend that rushing title as a senior, but a torn ACL ended his senior football season even started.
Cheaney worked through the rehab and found himself as the anchor of Nevada’s state champion 1600-meter relay team on Saturday.
“It means everything in the world,” Cheaney said. “I was so down up until track season and this just brought me back up. That finish was crazy. It really made me happy.”
Nevada led at every exchange and Cheney’s teammates gave him about a one-second cushion going into the anchor leg where he threw down a split of 49.46 to secure the title with a 3:20.24 just ahead of runner-up Parkway North with a 3:21.09.
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“I knew we had the lead, so I just had to do my job and get that first place. I was pushing for my guys,” Cheaney said. “It was like a dream. I have been dreaming about this moment. Coming down (the homestretch) with all of these fans was once in a lifetime for sure.”
He was joined on the relay by Shaityn Williams, John Collins and Aiden Watts.
“Shaityn wasn’t even supposed to be on this relay, but he came on this relay and did his thing. He put his work in all season,” Cheaney said. “Aiden has been doing this forever. I knew I could rely on him all season. He has just been there. John is only a sophomore, but he really picked up this team. He runs one of the fastest times on this team.”
It is the first running event state title for Nevada since 1957 and just the third running event state title in the program’s history according to the MSHSAA website. Nevada has six previous field event individual titles in its history.
McDonald County took third in the event with a time of 3:21.14.
