Dickerson, Muneio medal at Kimball Cross Country Invitational

Mitchell High School captured the top spots in both the girls and boys divisions of the Kimball High Cross Country Invitational on Friday as the Mitchell boys won the team title with 15 points thanks in large part to the one-two individual finish of Edward Grents and Chase Watson with respective times of 18:11 and 18:15 over the hilly 5K course at the Four Winds Golf Course. All five of Mitchell's top runners finished in the top 10 medal group with Cody Mueller fourth in 19:00, Max Avila ninth in 20:02 and Joseph Pieper l0th in 20:14.

Bridgeport finished as the runner-up in the boys team standings with 37 points, followed by Hemingford with 47, Kimball with 51, and Pine Bluffs with 60. Other individuals in the top ten medal group saw Jorge Garcia of Pine Bluffs third in 18:19, Declan Jefferies of Bridgeport fifth in 19:09, Alex Araujo-Bayard sixth in 19:20, Ryan Muneio of Kimball seventh in 19:27 and Toby Phillips of Hemingford eighth in 19:41.

It was a very good day for Kimball senior Ryan Muneio as he ran the school's top time for the day. Freshman Kaden Adrian shows great promise as he ran 17th in 22:11, and ran well in the field of 46 runners. Jordan Greenwood finished 22nd in 22:28, Rowdy Keller 26th in 22:55, Joel Evertson 33rd in 24:17 and Joseph Pagan 42nd in 28:44. Kimball was without Brandon Walker, who led the Kimball boys at Gering the previous week.

In the girls division, Mitchell's Celeste Cardona ran away from everyone in winning in 20:50. Teammate Madison Watson ran second in 22:36, well ahead of the third runner, but Mitchell did not have enough runners to compete in the team standings, won by Pine Bluffs with 13. Bridgeport had 28 and Kimball 37 in the team results.

Kimball's Kailey Dickerson finished eighth to earn her top 10 medal with a good running time of 24:17. Other top 10 runners included Matison Mikesell of Pine Bluffs in third with a time of 23:04, Kelsey Faircoth of Pine Bluffs fourth in 23:34, Nicole Baker of Bayard fifth in 23:44, Marissa Widener of Bridgeport sixth in 23:53, Celeste Jackson of Pine Bluffs ninth in 24:23, and Karsen Stull of Bridgeport l0th in 24:32.

Kimball's Ivana Valle made a solid run at the top 10, finishing 14th in 25:34. Alexis Gawith ran 22nd in the field of 34 runners with a time of 28:41, Taylor Muldoon 24th in 30:03, Arica McCloud 26th in 30:19, Christanne Clower 27th in 30:34, Olivia Ryschon 28th in 31:09, Jessica Hanks 29th in 31:29, and Kennedy Lewis 32nd in 33:20.

Kimball also had three boys run in the junior high 1~mile course with a field of 36 runners, which was won by Justin Davis of Hemingford in 9:35. Zavyer White ran 24th in 12:55, Beau Hanks 26th in 12:57, and Alex Flores 33rd in 15:17. Deb Morrow ran for Kimball in the junior high girls division that was won by Erin Griese of Pine Bluffs in 11:14.

Coach Tiffany Johnson said, "Again I was happy with the way our runners performed. They all gave a good effort. I like the way our girls run in a pack but we need to have the pack move up more and push our top runners a bit more as well."

It will be a busy week ahead for the Kimball team as it runs at Alliance on Saturday with a 9 a.m. start time, run at Scottsbluff on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 4:45 p.m., and then at Ogallala on Sept. 25 at 4 p.m.