Bemis sets new Junior High triple jump record

Samantha Bemis was outstanding in the first track meet of the season for the Kimball Junior High track team. The talented young eighth grader won three events in helping her Kimball team to a second place finish in the 13 school girl's division of the Bayard Invite. Southeast won the team title with 78 points with Kimball in the runner-up spot with 63.

Miss Bemis set a new Kimball Junior High record in winning the triple jump with her leap of 33'11", bettering the old record of 31'6.25" held previously by Kate Reader. Her amazing mark was actually better than the Kimball High record of 33'9.5 inches held by Shelby Vogel! Bemis has excellent speed as well, winning both the 100 meter dash in 13.87 and the 200 meter dash in 29.81. She also joined up with Megan Spicer, Raven Johnson and Reese Spradling to take fourth place in the 4 x 100 relay with their time of 59.53.

The Kimball girls have a pair of top triple jumpers as Megan Spicer finished second in the event at 29'4.5". Kaitlin Heeg took fifth in the long jump at 13'3" and ran eighth in the 100 meter hurdles in 20.47. Raven Johnson was second in the pole vault at 5'0" and Chantel Malson was third at the same height. Emma Martin scored in both weight events, taking seventh in the shot put at 22'10.5" and seventh in the discus at 61'6.5". Malson ran sixth in the 200 meter hurdles in 37.16 and Caelyn Long was eighth in the 1200 meter run with a time of 4:51.44. The 4 x 200 relay team of Spradling, Brandi Councilman, Tianna Stierwalt and Annissa Kizzair ran fourth in 2:15.72.

The Kimball boys finished farther down the list in the boy's division, finishing tenth in the team standing with 24 points. A gold medal for Ethan Ratzlaff in the pole vault with a best vault of 9'0". He also was third in the high jump at 4'10" and ran seventh in the 40 meter dash with a time of 1:04.61, finishing just behind teammate Christian Allen-VanPelt who ran sixth in 1:04.54. Allen-VanPelt was third in the long jump at 16'1.5". Kimball had three medal winners in the pole vault with Javon Coyle sixth at 7'6" and Cole Henton tied for seventh at 7'0". Thomas Muldoon was eighth in the 1200 meter run with a time of 4:21.13. Kimball ran seventh in the 4 x 400 relay in 4:59.64 and was eighth in the 4 x 200 relay in 2:16.15. The Mitchell boys dominated in winning the team title with 145.5 points with Bayard a distant runner-up with 54 points.

The Kimball Junior High reams were back in action yesterday (Wednesday) at the Potter-Dix Invite held at the Kimball facility. They will be back in action on April 20 at their own Kimball Invitational with a 9 a.m. start time.