Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Brady Kilgore MVP At Bayard B-C-D Track Invite

Brady Kilgore won two of the top awards handed out at last week's B-C-D Track Invite along with winning both hurdle events and placing in all four events he was in.

The talented senior from Kimball High was voted Most Valuable Male Athlete by virtue of his performances on the day and also was given the Jim Hohnstein top hurdler medal.

This award was in honor of the former Bayard High coach and former outstanding hurdler who passed away after a battle with cancer.

Top team honors went to Sidney in both the girls and boys divisions.

The class B powerhouse won the boys team title with 174 points with Alliance runner-up with 110. Mitchell was 3rd with 89 followed by Kimball in 4th with 46, Garden County 44.5, Hemingford 44, Bridgeport 43, Chadron 39, Morrill 36, Bayard 22, Crawford 6, and Sioux County 5.

In the girl's division Sidney won with 113 points edging out Chadron by 1 point as the Lady Cardinals tallied 112. The rest of the field saw Mitchell with 82, Alliance 68, Sioux County 58, Bayard 42, Morrill 38, Crawford 36, Hemingford 29, Kimball 28, Bridgeport 26, Garden County 24, Hay Springs 1.

Kilgore's winning times in the hurdles saw him run 16.33 in the 110 meter high after clocking 16.19 in the prelims and 43.68 in the 300 hurdles. Not a good day for the high jumpers as Casey Clinger of Bridgeport won at 5'11" but Brady was 2nd at 5'9", well off his best jump of 6'3.75". Kilgore also ran a leg on the 4 x 100 relay clocking 47.21, to finish 5th.

The Bayard B-C-D meet is scored using 8 places rather than the usual 6 places. An outstanding day for senior Corey Travis who keeps improving each week.

The stocky young man destroyed his own personal best at Bayard with a throw of 44'0" in the shot put to take 3rd place and was only 9 inches from the winning effort. He also had a PR in the discus of 114'0" to take 8th place. Teammate Luis Portillo was just a half inch behind Corey for 9th place at 113'11.5" also a PR.

Tommy Lenzen ran only the 1600 at Bayard finishing 5th in a PR time of 4:58.10 to get under the 5 minute mark for the first time. Thomas Muldoon was just one place from a medal in the 800 meters with a personal best time of 2:20.13. Brayden Tyan was 6th in the long jump at 18'9.5 and ran a leg on the 4 x100 relay team.

No gold for the Kimball girls but an outstanding silver place medal for Megan Spicer in the long jump as the young sophomore finish 2nd with a PR jump of 15'10.5" just a half inch out of the gold won by Kamry Kramer of Garden County on her last jump of 15'11".

Katie Heeg placed 8th in the long jump at 14'9" for another PR and ran 3rd in the 100 meter hurdles in 17.69 for yet another PR. Maddison Merryfield ran a faster prelim time than two hurdlers ran in the finals but was one time out of making the finals.

The 4 x 100 relay team of Megan Spicer, Jenna Greenwood, Raven Johnson, and Chantel Malson ran 3rd in 54.29.

Malson also ran 4th in the 1600 meter with a time of 6:13.35, also a personal best.

Raven Johnson was one of four girls who vaulted 8'0" but was awarded 8th on virtue of when her misses occurred.

Coach Gene Mohr was without key people on his team for various reason and also limited his athletes to fewer events as they ready for the district meet, set for today (Thursday), weather permitting and even if the weather is not very good the meet will most likely go on as scheduled.

The Class C District meet that Kimball is involved in will be back at Bayard. The scheduled start time is 10:30 a.m. and will feature both a morning and afternoon session.

Again, this could possibly vary depending on weather conditions.

In Class C, the top two individuals in each event and the winning relay teams, along with additional fastest qualifying marks from all districts will qualify for the upcoming state meet in Omaha set for May 17-18.