Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The four senior Kimball High Cross Country runners on this year's team were honored along with their parents at half time of the Kimball-Hershey football game this past Friday night. Pictured left to right are Monica Wasielewski, Arica McCloud, Kailey Dickerson and Raylyn Soper.
Kimball will have two runners representing them at this year's State Class D Cross Country meet being held tomorrow (Friday) at the Kearney Country Club Golf Course. Brandon Barker, a junior, and Zachery Wagner, a freshman, were the Longhorns' state qualifiers by virtue of their respective number three and number fifteen finishes at the District race held this past week in Grant.
It was a good day all around for Kimball according to coach Tiffany Johnson.
"I am so proud of all of our kids. They have worked so hard all year and they ran so well at District, especially Brandon and Zachery. I am happy their hard work has paid off and I think they will do well at State as well," said coach Johnson.
The Kimball boys finished 4th in the field of 11 boys teams scoring 87 points and finishing just one place out of qualifying the entire team as the top three teams advance and the top individual 15 runners, regardless of team finish. Bridgeport won the boys team title with 34 points followed by Dundy County-Stratton with 37, and Chase County with 39. The balance of the boys team finishes in order were Perkins County 94, Hemingford 104, Creek Valley 122, Cambridge 139, St. Pats 140, Sutherland 172, and Hershey 186.
Kimball's runners order of finish and time over the 5,000 meter race were Brandon Barker 3rd in 18:06.24, Zachery Wagner 15th in 19:03.44, Kaden Adrian 39th in 21:00.05, Joel Evertson 47th in 21:20.39, Thomas Lenzen 49th in 21:27.87, and Nicholas Thomas-Lewis 51st in 21:39.36. A good showing by all Kimball runners in the field of 88 runners. On the positive side, all of the Kimball boys return next year! Race time at Kearney for the Class D boys is 3 p.m. Kearney time.
Bridgeport also won the girls team title with 38 points followed by Dundy County-Stratton with 40 and Hitchcock County with 43. These are the state qualifying teams. Chase County was 4th with 52, St Pats had 79, Kimball 6th with 93, and Hershey 7th with 108.
Top runner for Kimball was sophomore Alexandra Reader finishing 29th in the field of 64 runners with a time of 25:07.96. Kailey Dickerson ran 32nd in 25:28.34, Raylyn Soper was 40th in 26:53.23, Arica McCloud 47th in 27:53.18, Monica Wasielewski 50th in 28:32.59, and Kennedy Lewis 55th in 29:42.67. Unlike the boys team with everyone returning, the Kimball girls graduate four seniors including Dickerson, Soper, McCloud, and Wasielewski leaving coach Johnson with a job of rebuilding her Lady Longhorn squad, but with the interest shown this year and with the numbers up, things look bright for the program. In the next week or so, we will recap the season and review the final stat sheets. In the mean time, GOOD LUCK to Brandon and Zachery at the State Meet tomorrow!
