Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The outdoor track season kicked off with a breezy and warm Saturday at the Kimball Invite. Seven teams participated in the meet. Pictured above, from left, Banner County's Emily Singleton, Kimball's Madison Biesecker and Potter-Dix's Hope Shepard head down the stretch in the 100 meter dash.
Kimball's Trent Rutledge heads over the bar during the pole vault Saturday at the home team's invitational track meet. Rutledge won the event with a vault of 12-0.
Kimball's Ali Hunsaker heads around the track in the early stretch of the 400 meter dash at Saturday's track meet.
Mitchell took home top team honors in both the girls and boys divisions of the 2015 Kimball High Track Invitational on Saturday. In the boys division the Tigers piled up 137.33 points with Kimball a distant runner up with 85.33. In the girls division the Lady Tigers amassed 153 points with Potter-Dix finishing second with 121.
Two new meet records were set Saturday in the girls division and one tied in the boys division. Aspen Reifschneider of Mitchell, who was a four event gold medal winner on the day, set a new triple jump record of 33'9" bettering the old mark of 33'4.5" set by Kaitlyn Jespersen of Hemingford in 2012. Jaden Ragsdale of Pine Bluffs set a new shotput mark of 37'2.5" to better the old mark of 36'4" set in 2009. Kimball's Trent Rutledge tied the boys pole vault record of 12'0" and will now share that record with Austin Lang of Pine Bluffs who set the record in 2009.
Temperature wise, it was one of the better days for the Kimball Invite although the wind blew strong most all day. Highlights for the Kimball boys was of course Rutledge winning the pole vault at a record height of 12'0." Jaden Withrow was a standout as well winning two golds as he won the triple jump at 42'7.5" and took the long jump at 20'1.75." The Longhorn sophomore standout had set a personal goal for the day of 42 feet in the triple jump and met his goal to win handily as second place was over 3 feet back.
Like they will all season, the Horns piled up most of their points in the field events. Three places in the vault as Justin Mohr was 4th at 10'6" and Jaden Mohr tied for 6th at 9'6." Three places in the triple jump with Jon Withrow 4th at 38'8.5"and Colton Stull 6th at 37'0." Two places in the long jump with Stull 5th at 18'10."
Tyler Magninie had a career personal best in the high jump clearing 5'8" for 4th place. In the weights, Damien Rutledge was 4th in the shotput at 42'6.5" and was 6th in the discus at 114.10.75." Ben Sauter was just one place out in the discus finishing 7th at 112'7."
A pleasant surprise in the hurdles with Javier Figueroa running 4th in the 110 meter highs in 17.65, and 5th in the 300 hurdles in 45.70. Also a good showing by the Horn's young distance runners as sophomore AJ Williams ran 5th in the 1600 in 5:46.69 and freshman Kaden Adrian 6th in 5:50.01. No surprise that senior Ryan Muneio ran well in the middle distance races taking 2nd in a photo finish of the 800 meter run with his time of 2:13.78 with Chase Watson of Mitchell winning in 2:13.58. Muneio also ran 3rd in the 400 in 54.02. Colton Stull ran 5th in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.66.
The Kimball boys also scored well in the relay events with the 4x100 relay team of Jaden Withrow, Javier Figueroa, Jon Withrow, and Colton Stull running just behind the winning Mitchell team to finish 2nd in 44.47 while Mitchell clocked 44.18. Kimball's young 4x400 relay unit ran 5th in 4:26.75 with Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, Paycen Harroun, Ryan Soper, and Kaden Adrian carrying the baton. Adrian and Soper joined with AJ Williams and Jaden Mohr to run 5th in the 4x800 relay with a time of 10:17.53.
The Kimball girls finished 4th in the team standings with 68 points. No gold medals for the Lady Horns but Madison Biesecker, despite competing while battling a case of flu, came close. In the long jump she finished 2nd with her leap of 15'9.75" which was leading until Reifschneider of Mitchell beat her out on her final jump which measured 15'10.25."
Hannah Biesecker was also in the hunt as the Kimball freshman was 3rd at 15'6.5. Madison also ran 2nd in the 300 hurdles with a time of 53.17, well off her career best time, but again, showing a lot of character just to run the event the way she was feeling.
A solid day for Kimball's lone senior as Jessica Hanks was 3rd in the discus at 100'8.5" and 6th in the shotput at 32'4.75." Danika Daum was 4th in the shot at 33'3.5." Ali Hunsaker was tied for 2nd in the pole vault at 7'6," ran 3rd in the 400 in 1:06.68, and 4th in the 200 in 28.70. Mikayla Fiehtner was 3rd in the 100 meter hurdles in 19.52 and 4th in the high jump at 4'6." Sophomore Jannel Fiehtner showed strong in the triple jump as the sophomore finished 2nd with a jump of 33'2," just 7 inches out of taking the gold. Not bad for her first ever competitive showing in the event. Hannah Biesecker picked up a 6th place in the 200 meter dash in 29.37.
No points in the relays as Kimball failed to enter a team in any of the relay events, something coach Gene Mohr is not real pleased with. "You know, we have a small girls team with only l5 members, but we really do have some quality girls. We need to get our girls to think like they do in volleyball and basketball, where they really perform well as a team. Right now they are not doing that and would rather just do their own events. I know we have some girls who could put together some competitive relay teams which would give us more team points."
Hopefully the flu bug will get out of town and let those Kimball athletes who had a touch of the flu bug get well. Kimball is back in action today (Thursday) at the Bayard C-D meet which gets underway at 9 a.m. The weather forecast is calling for cold and moisture and Kimball Activities Director Ken Smith said he doubts that the meet will be moved to another date. Break out the rain gear and the warm clothes and make the trip to watch the Longhorns in action.