Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Kimball's Madison Biesecker heads into the pit in the long jump at district. She took second in the event to earn a state meet berth.
Ryan Muneio heads around the track at last week's district meet. He finished second in the 800 meter run to earn a state berth in that event.
AJ Williams earned a spot in the state track meet in the 3200 meter run. He finished second in the event at district.
A good showing for the Kimball High Track and Field Team as they qualified 6 individuals in 8 events at the C-II District meet held in Bayard this past week. Team wise, the Kimball boys finished 4th in the 8 school field and the Kimball girls wound up 5th.
Team scores for the boys saw Bridgeport win out with 109 points followed by Hemingford with 101, Chase County 76, Kimball 68, Dundy County-Stratton 47, Bayard 45, Perkins County 43, Gordon-Rushville 38.
Chase County won the girls team title with 134 points followed by Bridgeport with 75, Bayard 73, Dundy County-Stratton 65.5, Kimball 64.5, Gordon-Rushville 56, Hemingford 45, and Perkins County 13.
Jaden Withrow, Madison Biesecker, and Ali Hunsaker will be making return trips to the Nebraska State Meet, and Withrow and Biesecker are double qualifiers and will represent the Longhorns in two events at Omaha. No gold medal winners on the day for Kimball as all of their qualifiers came on second place finishes with Class C qualifying the top two in each event and the top relay team, plus some additional fastest times from all districts and automatic qualifying marks in the field events.
Withrow, a sophomore, will be going in both the triple jump and long jump with his 2nd place qualifying jumps of 41'0" and 20'4.5." Biesecker, a junior, finished 2nd in the long jump at 15'6" and ran a season best time of 49.95 in the 300 hurdles.
Ali Hunsaker failed to qualify in the 200 meters, the event she ran at state last year, but she really shined in her new pet event, the pole vault, as she had a career best vault of 9'6" to improve her school record one more time. Trent Rutledge also had a career best vault for the Kimball boys clearing the bar at 13'2" for his 2nd place finish and had excellent attempts at 13'8." Both vaulters show promise of going even higher at the big show in Omaha this weekend.
On the track for the boys, senior Ryan Muneio is making his first trip to the state track although he was a four time state cross country runner. After running 3rd in the open 400 and missing a trip to state by one place, he came back determined in the 800 to earn his trip east running a career best time of 2:02.48 for 2nd place and a spot in the van as it leaves Kimball Thursday morning. Sophomore AJ Williams was also determined he was going to get the job done and he did! AJ ran 2nd in the 3200 with a best time of 10:55.38 and his potential has no boundaries. All six of the qualifiers, in all eight events, have a good shot at bringing home hardware from the elite state meet.
The six qualifiers and coaches will leave on Thursday, stop along the way for a work out, and will compete along with Class A in the morning session on Friday which will include Williams in the boys 3200, Biesecker in the girls 300 hurdles prelims, Biesecker in the girls long jump, Withrow in the boys triple jump, and Hunsaker in the girls pole vault. Rutledge will vault on Saturday, Muneio will run the 800 on Saturday, and Withrow will long jump on Saturday.
Kimball coach Gene Mohr was very pleased with the way his Kimball Tracksters performed at District and was beaming at all of the personal bests, but he was also disappointed when he talked about all of the third place finishes his Longhorns had, leaving them one place out of qualifying.
Ryan Muneio ran 3rd in the 400 in 52.14. Jessica Hanks was 3rd in the discus at 108'0," and 4th in the shotput at 33'6" for a career best. Danika Daum was 5th in the shot at 33'0" and coach Dane Wurdeman said she scratched on a shove of 35' plus that would have placed her 2nd. Daum was 6th in the discus at 97'8." Freshman Hannah Biesecker was 3rd in the long jump with her jump of 15'2.5." Jon Withrow was 3rd in the triple jump at 39'8.25," and Colton Stull was 4th in the long jump at 19'4.75." Jannel Fiehtner was 7th in the triple jump at 30'11." Stull ran 4th in the boys 100 in 11.84 and the Biesecker sisters went 3-4 in the girls 100 meters with Madison 3rd in 13.69 and Hannah 4th in 13.71. In the girls 200 meter dash Hunsaker was 5th in 28.25 and Hannah Biesecker 6th in 28.31. Hunsaker also ran 5th in the 400 in 1:06.13. Trent Rutledge was 8th in the 110 meter hurdles in 17.80. Tyler Magninie 6th in the boys high jump at 5'8". Justin Mohr 7th in the pole vault at 10'8." Mikayla Fiehtner tied for 6th in the girls high jump at 4'3."
Both Kimball 4x100 relay teams finished 3rd with the boys team of Ryan Muneio, Jaden Withrow, Jon Withrow, and Colton Stull running 46.42, and the girls team of Jannel Fiehtner, Hannah Biesecker, Ali Hunsaker, and Madison Biesecker timed in 52.81. The Kimball boys also ran a 4x800 relay with their young team mates of Kaden Adrian, Ryan Soper, Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, and AJ Williams running 6th in 9:25.12.