Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Kimball's Brady Kilgore (right) and Potter-Dix's Coby Hicks (center) run neck-and-neck in the 110 meter high hurdles. Kilgore ran fourth and Hicks seventh in the race won by state leader in the event, Drew Gilliland of Mitchell.
Kimball's Trent Rutledge (center) and Coby Hicks of Potter-Dix (right) along with Chadron's Joe Ritzen on the awards stand at Monday evening's Best of the West Track Classic. All three cleared 13'0" with Rutledge winning for fewer misses at lower heights, Hicks 2nd and Ritzen 3rd. Rutledge had a season best and Hicks a career best.
Regyn Hicks, left placed second in the girl's high jump at the Best of the West with her jump of 5'0".
Potter Dix triple jumper Trinity Langley in flight while competing in the event at the Best of the West Track Classic.
Potter-Dix's Anna McLaughlin clears the bar at 5'0", a career best, to finish 4th at the Best of the West. Her top jump was the same height as 2nd and 3rd but kept her out of the medal group by the formula of more misses to get to that height by state leader in the event, Drew Gilliland of Mitchell.
Alexus Rozelle of Potter-Dix was a double gold medal winner at Monday's Best of the West Track Classic. Rozelle went up against the Best of all size schools and showed she was the best in winning both the discus and shot put. Also pictured is Banner County High's Makenna Dahlgrin who won the third place bronze medal in the discus and Trista Stees of Southeast who placed second.
Potter-Dix Gold Medal winner Alexus Rozelle nestles the shot put as she readies for her winning effort at Monday's Best of the West Track Classic.
Kimball's Jaden Withrow sails through the air enroute to a career best triple jump of 43'7.75" to win the gold medal at the Best of the West Classic Monday evening.
Jaden Withrow on the top tier of the awards stand to receive the Gold Medal for winning the boy's triple jump at the Best of the West.
Jaden Withrow and Trent Rutledge picked the best time to have their best efforts at the Best of the West Track and Field Classic, track and field meet, held Monday evening at Bearcat Stadium in Scottsbluff.
Withrow had a career best triple jump of 43'7.75" to capture the gold medal,well ahead of second place Mitch Porter of Sidney with his leap of 41'6.75" The talented Kimball junior also saw the medal stand a second time to receive a third place medal in the long jump with his season best jump of 21'0". A very good night for Mr. Withrow as he readies for the district and hopefully state meets coming up soon.
Kimball High senior, Trent Rutledge also took the top spot on the awards stand for winning the pole vault with a season best of 13'0". Three Best of the West vaulters, including Coby Hicks of Potter-Dix and Joe Ritzen of Chadron, all cleared this height with Rutledge getting the gold on the fewer misses at lower heights formula. Rutledge started at 11'6" and never had a miss until going out at 13'6" and almost making that height as well. Hicks, also a senior, had his career best vault in winning the silver medal.
Kimball had four participants at the Best of the West Classic including freshman Brady Kilgore in the 110 meter high hurdles where he ran fourth, just one place out of a medal, clocking a personal best time of 16.16. Coby Hicks ran seventh in 17.19.
Ali Hunsaker didn't quite get the height, or finish, she was wanting in the girl's pole vault but had a good vault of 8'6" to finish sixth, the same height of fourth place. Hunsaker has gone 9'0" this year and that would have equalled second place.
Potter-Dix had their highlights, but Alexus Rozelle stole the main spotlight as she went home a double gold medal winner capturing both the girl's shot put and discus, and doing it handily as she showed the big schools what small school athletes can do. Rozelle had a career best in winning the shot put at 40'0", well ahead of runner up Brianna Eckerberg of Gering with her top shove of 37'11". The Lady Coyote won the discus with a throw of 116'4", over 8 feet better than second place Trista Stees of Southeast with her throw of 108'2". Makenna Dahlgrin of Banner County captured the bronze medal finishing third with her top throw of 106' 6'. Abby Russell of Banner County finished out of the money with her shot put best effort of 31'7.5" and Cortney Lewis of Potter Dix had a best of 30'6.5". Rozelle was certainly in the running for Top Female Athlete of the meet. Dahlgrin finished fifth in the shot put at 35'11".
It would be hard to remember the last time Potter-Dix didn't have a pair of high jumpers vying for top honors and this year was no different as they had a pair of girls clear 5'0" with Regyn Hicks placing second at that height and Anna McLaughlin taking fourth place at the same height. The gold went to Greta Welch of Chadron at 5'2". Trinity Langley of Potter-Dix competed in the triple jump and placed eighth at 31'9.25".
As mentioned, Coby Hicks had a good day in his events, finishing second in the vault with a career best vault of 13'0" and running a good time in the 110 meter hurdles. Kody Spencer also represented the Coyotes in the 3200 meter run finishing fifth with a time of 10:49.23.