Jock Talk

This week is all about a SHOUT OUT FOR BRANDON BARKER! What a great job by the Kimball High senior as he closed out his high school cross country career with a 5th place medal winning performance at the Nebraska State Cross Country Meet in Kearney. Congrats to the Kimball boys’s team for qualifying and running well at the State Meet. And congrats to coaches Tiffany Johnson and Laurie Janicek for the role they played in getting these boys to State and for all of their many accomplishments during the season.

This group seems to have so much fun and a lot of you might find it hard to believe that it can be fun running all of those miles over hill and dale, but ask the kids, and ask the coaches. They do have Fun!

Thanks, coach Laurie for the phone call and the report from Kearney informing me how everyone fared. Thanks for the video on Facebook when Brandon received his state medal and there was no doubt that was the voices of coach Tiff and coach Laurie yelling, “Good Job Brandon” as he received his medal.

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Coach Janicek did some research and came up with a list of Kimball High runners who have earned state cross country medals, and again thanks for sharing with us. Barker is only the 5th boy runner from Kimball High to earn a state medal, as far as we can tell, but if anyone knows different, please let us know. Bob Volkmer was 2nd in 1977 when they ran 2.5 miles. Mitch O’Hare earned two medals placing 4th in 1996 and 6th in 1997. Kyle Bartles ran 13th in 2004 and Brandon Barker 5th in 2016.

A lot more Kimball High girls have earned state medals. Natalie Masada ran 8th in 1980, Gale Mueller 7th in 1982. Angie Lippold, who went on to run for the University of Nebraska, was a four time state medal winner placing 4th in 1984, 5th in 1985, 4th in 1986 and 5th in 1987. Eija Mikola was 9th in 1988, Susannah Simmons was 7th in 1993 and 13th in 1995. Kelly Young ran 13th in 1995 and 12th in 1996. Kristen Addleman ran 7th in 1997 and Renetta Rawlings 5th in 2006. All of these places were at the 4K distance.

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With girl’s golf and cross country now complete, and football also for Kimball High, only volleyball remains in the fall sports, but already we are moving into winter sports activities with junior high wresting involving Kimball at Banner County this Saturday, and then Tuesday, November 1, Kimball will host their own junior high wrestling tournament. High School volleyball sub-districts begin at Sidney Monday, October 31.