Records set and records broken in back-to-back cross country meets

Running back-to-back meets is tough enough, but when those meets are conference finals more than an hour away from home, the pressure might seem too much. Not so for our Longhorn runners, who used the opportunity to best school records set new personal records and medal at conferences.

Longhorn Cross Country runners did just that, competing in the SPVA Conference in Grant at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4 and competing the very next day at 11 a.m. in Morrill for the WTC Conference.

At Grant, Chantel Malson led the ladies in, finishing in 11th, just one shy of medaling in 22:41 followed by Anabela Whitehead in 24:52 and Brandi Councilman in 26:32.

At the same conference the boys team continued showing improvements with Zachery Wagner finishing fifth in 18:46 to lead the Horns and followed closely Teammate Thomas Lenzen in tenth place with a time of 19:15.

Brady Kilgore finished in 21:39, Connor Cluff ran 21:57, Cole Henton finished in 22:22, Chris Barker came in at 22:48 and Stephen Bateman finished in 27:37.

With just hours to rest and recover the Horns traveled north for the WTC meet where the boys finished third of sixth as a team and Chantel Malson took the number one spot on the Kimball High School Freshman records and the third top spot overall!

Wagner again led his team, earning fifth place at the tournament and setting a new personal record with his 17:39 finish. Wagner is in the number 7 spot in the team’s overall records.

Lenzen also set a new personal record and earned eighth place with his finish of 18:14. Cole Henton ran 20:38 and Kilgore finished in 20:41, each setting their personal best times.

Connor Cluff ran the course in 21:10 followed closely by Barker with a personal record run of 21:14 and Draven Vickery with his personal best run of 21:22. Jordan Cluff finished in 26 minutes and Stephen Bateman set his new personal record with a 26:58 finish.

Malson ran the course in 21:32, setting her new personal best, taking the third spot in Kimball Cross Country overall records and taking the top freshman honor held since 2007 by Kaitlin Moritz with a time of 21:55.

Whitehead followed with her own personal best time of 23:57 and Councilman finished in 27:05.

“We are very proud of Zachery and Thomas for placing in both meets and for Chantel for placing in WTC and getting the freshman record. The three of them ran their hearts out these two meets,” coach Tiffany Johnson said.

Kimball’s junior high school runners competed in their final meet of the season at WTC, where the younger boys finished second as a team, led by Matthew Johnson with a run time of 13:11 and Joseph Bremer in 13:19.

James McGinnis ran his season record of 13:47 followed by Braylong Miller in 13:59, Xavier Thomas-Lewis in 14:49 and

Brandon Paxton ran 17:36 for his new personal record.

Joey Johnson ran the course in 17:37 followed by Landon Norberg in17:38 and Shane Zoppelli in 19:24.

The junior high girls competed as well, though with two runners, they were unable to do so as a team. Shannen Marks completed the course in 15:24 and Sierra Greenwood ran her personal best in 17:44.

“We are very proud of how our kids ran this week. Running on back to back days is tough considering we run at 4 in the afternoon on Thursday and at 11:00 on Friday,” Johnson said. “We feel that the runners put forth their best effort and did an awesome job. We are looking forward to what districts hold for our team this Thursday in Bridgeport with a start time of 3:00.”