Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Mitchell captured both divisions of the 2018 Western Trails Conference Track and Field Meet held at Morrill this past week. Bridgeport was runner-up in both divisions and Bayard finished 3rd in both classes.
The Lady Tigers amassed 186 points to capture the girl's division, followed by Bridgeport with 103, Bayard 71, Kimball 48.66, Hemingford 41, Gordon-Rushville 40 and Morrill 36.33.
In the boy's division, Mitchell won with 127 points, Bridgeport had 120, Bayard 78, Gordon-Rushville 70, Kimball 68, Hemingford 37 and Morrill 27.
Kimball had a strong showing with several personal best marks and scored well in the jumps, the vault and hurdles. The top 3 individuals in all events are given All Conference recognition and Kimball brought home their share in this category as well.
Brady Kilgore was a double winner for the Horns, taking the 110 meter hurdles with a winning time of 15.64 and winning the gold in the high jump with a PR height of 6'0". He also finished 3rd in the 300 hurdles in 42.36 and 4th in the long jump at 18'9". The Horns had 3 places in the boy's pole vault won by Paycen Harroun with a new personal record of 13'0". Jaden Mohr was 4th at 11'6" and Ethan Ratzlaff 6th at 11'0". Mohr also ran 6th in the 110 meter hurdles with his time of 20.11.
In the triple jump, Kimball's young duo of Brayden Tyan and Christian Allen-Van Pelt, finished 5-6 respectively, with marks of 37'7.5" and 36'3.5". Corey Travis got the Horns some points in the throws taking 5th in the shot put at 40'3.5" and 5th in the discus at 107'6". Byron Rowley used his sprint speed to finish 5th in the 100 meter dash in 12.14 seconds and 6th in the 200 meters in 25.26. Kaden Adrian ran 6th in the 1600 in 5:28.96.
The Kimball boys also placed in all 3 relays with the team of Tyan, Allen-Van Pelt, Rowley and Colton Mielke running 3rd in the 4x100 in 48.97. The 4x400 relay team of Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, Zachery Wagner, Paycen Harround and Kaden Adrian ran 6th in 3:59.04 and the 4x800 relay team of Adrian, Thomas-Lewis, Wagner and Sam Cajero ran 4th in 9:34.60.
Although the Kimball boys scored more points than the Kimball girls, the Lady Longhorns finished higher in 4th place.
The jumpers performed well once again, especially in the triple jump won by freshman Sam Bemis, with her leap of 33'.5". Jenna Greenwood was 3rd at 32'3.5' and Megan Spicer 4th at 31'3". Spicer was 3rd in the long jump at 14'3" and Greenwood was 3rd in the high jump at 4'6". Bemis and Kennedy Lewis tied for 6th in the vault at 7'6". A huge disappointment for the day was Hannah Biesecker failing to get a qualified mark in the long jump, where she was the favorite to reap the gold.
Hannah scratched on all 3 of her jumps in the prelims and failed to make the finals. She is leading in the event in the region at 16'4". She did come back to place 6th in the 100 meter dash with her time of 13.91. Carli Wurdeman picked up all conference honors with her 3rd place in the discus throwing 93'6". The 4x100 relay team of Spicer, Greenwood, Bemis and Biesecker ran 2nd in 53.93.
One meet record was set with Jack Linders of Bridgeport, setting a new mark in the 800 with his winning time of 2.00.06 to better the old mark of 2:01.20 set by Dan Skavdahl of Mitchel in 2002. Outstanding Athlete awards for the meet went to Mitchell's Jori Peters for the girls and Kadin Perez for the boys. Perez, a freshman, won the 100, 200, 400 and ran on the winning 4x100 relay team.
Kimball is scheduled to return to Morrill for the George Calvert Invite this Saturday, but the weather forecast is not real favorable and alternative post-ponement dates are hard to fit in. This might be a wait-and-see situation. Also, the Best of the West meet being held in Scottsbluff is set for Tuesday evening (April 24) with a 4 p.m. start time. The final listing of the select athletes who have qualified have not been released at the time of this writing.