Need help with multiple loops on category template page

Hi, I am working on a theme I made and I am having difficulty with the category template page- category.php.

I am trying to have 2 loops on the page and each loop will display the posts from whatever category the user is viewing.

As of now I have 2 loops on it working except the first one is not working at all how it should. The first loop is suppose to show the most recent article from the category with its title, image and excerpt. While the second loop shows a grid of the rest of the posts in the category.

Here’s the loops code, can anyone help me getting the first loop to work correctly?

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

Large code excerpts: [Large code excerpt removed by moderator per forum rules. Please use the pastebin for all large code excerpts. It works better anyway.]