By NICK McQUEEN

nmcqueen@dailynews

One of the most dominant tandems in prep track & field and cross country, the Ness City duo of Colton McNinch and Kyle Calvin received numerous headlines this year.

With the two leading their squads to a countless number of team trophies and gold medals, record-setting performances, and one state championship, the Eagles were certainly the team to beat in 2009.

The Eagles' run at the state championship in the Class 1A State Track & Field Championships at Wichita's Cessna Stadium, and Ness City's one-point runner-up finish in cross country is among the HDN's top stories for the calendar year.

It started with a bang during state track weekend in May at Cessna Stadium, as McNinch and Calvin were on the track for the start of the Friday morning 3,200-meter run, a memorable event for the runners, both juniors.

For the first time, Calvin, the second-best runner of the two, got the better of his teammate, McNinch, who has been one of the most decorated prep runners in the area -- and the state. McNinch was leading the 3,200 most of the way that morning, until Calvin kicked at the end for the victory, the first time in three seasons in either track & field or cross country where Calvin had beaten McNinch in an official race.

"I've always hoped to beat him, and thought it would be cool," Calvin said following the win. "I've never been in that position before, so I wasn't quite sure what to do."

Calvin finished with a gold-medal 9 minutes, 42.66 seconds, passing McNinch in the final 20 meters. McNinch, the defending champion knew that set the tone for the weekend, and had a feeling the Eagles weren't going to be denied. It motivated the duo and Ness City into two more dominating distance performances over the weekend, as Ness captured the team crown with 53 points, five ahead of runner-up Goessel.

McNinch and Calvin were first and second again in the 1,600 run Saturday, this time flip-flopping positions, finishing the sweep of the individual distance events in 1A.

"We run side-by-side every day in practice," McNinch said after the mile. "When you're running against the No. 1 or No. 2 runner in the state, you can get pushed real easily every day."

The 1,2 finish in the 1,600 came after McNinch brought the Eagles back in the final leg of the 3,200 relay -- in the final 300 meters.

The junior combination of Calvin, Dustin Foster, Joe Flax and McNinch, in that order, earned 10 points toward the Eagles' title, finishing in 8:23.68.

"At first I thought we were in third place and I was going after second," McNinch said of the final relay lap. "After that first lap, I realized it was the first-place guy.

"I knew he was hurting so I tried to push it from there and got him," he added.

After the mile, though, McNinch and Calvin just sat back and watched as the rest of the Eagles added the points needed to secure the crown on the weekend.

Junior Gage Kepple scored six points in fourth and sixth-place finishes in the 100 (11.58 seconds) and 200-meter (23.43) dashes, respectively, and the 1,600 relay (Foster, senior Dustin Schuler, junior Joe Flax and sophomore Skyler Kraft) put on the finishing touches in 3:37.30, earning the final point in the final event of the day -- an event won by runner-up Goessel.

The title was a good start to 2009, but this fall, the Eagles didn't quite put the finishing touches on a dominating cross country season. The entire fall, the Eagles sat atop the rankings in Class 1A as the defending champion from 2008, and were rarely challenged at that level.

That is, until the final two weeks of the season.

Ness City and Tribune-Greeley County, the first and second-place finishers from the previous season, were pretty well locked into the top two spots at the regional in Grainfield, and backed that up by finshing first (Ness) and second, but by a slim margin. The No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams went head-to-head again at the state finale in Wamego in October. This time it was Greeley County taking the honors, by a mere point over the Eagles. McNinch and Calvin stayed true to season form, finishing first and second in the 1A field in their senior cross country campaigns, but Greeley County placed five runners in the top 20, to edge the Eagles by one point, 24-25.

In 2010, the Eagles will be looking to send their senior class out with another track & field championship in a spring season that could be just as impressive as the last.