Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Jock Talk
The 2019 Nebraska State Track Meet is in the books, and we have local athletes who not only wrote their names into the State books, but also into their own school record books as well.
Kimball High sent two athletes to this year’s State Meet and seniors Brady Kilgore and Corey Travis will cherish the memories of this trip for a lifetime. For Brady, it was his third consecutive trip to the big show in Omaha, and for Corey, it was his first. Each year has gotten better for Brady. In his sophomore year of 2017 he qualified for the 110 meter high hurdles and brought home the 5th place medal with his time of 15.2. Last year as a junior, he ran 2nd to win the silver medal clocking 15.17, and also qualified in the high jump but did not medal despite clearing 6’0”. This year, in his final trip east, he won the gold in Class C in the 110 meter high hurdles with his winning time of 14.79. He also ran 6th in the 300 hurdles with his time of 41.56 and was 7th in the high jump at 6’0”. He brought home three state medals! An awesome accomplishment for this young man who will take his talents to Chadron State College this coming fall after accepting a scholarship offer to join the Eagle Track team.
Although he didn’t bring home any hardware from the state meet Corey Travis represented himself and his school in fine fashion finishing 19th in the shot put with a best throw of 42’2.25”.
-------------------------------------
Deven Sullivan, a very talented young distance runner from Banner county, also had a good trip to the state meet as a two event qualifier. Just a junior, he ran some exciting times finishing 12th on Friday in the Class D 3200 with his time of 10:53.88, and then coming back on Saturday to run 11th in the 1600 in 4:49.87. Both of his times are very good and look for Deven to improve even more next season.
-------------------------------------
I didn’t make the trip to Omaha this year and haven’t for the past few years but in prior years it was something I wouldn’t miss. The Nebraska State Track Meet is one of the top High School events nation wise and a few years back I read an article that listed it as one of the top ten High School events in the Nation! I just don’t like driving in Omaha anymore.
I want to thank Kimball High track coach Gene Mohr for all of the many texts he sent me to keep me updated and informed as to what was happening and also a thank you to Larry Pahl for his phone calls.
During one of those calls, Larry asked me if I could remember any other Kimball High track athlete bringing home three medals from a state meet. Larry goes back many years of coaching at Kimball high school and he had some thoughts on who might have, but relied on me to do some digging my files. For certain, my old senior age memory doesn’t get the job done as well as it used but with a bit of time I can dig out of my years of files.
The most recent Kimball High athlete to have accomplished this feat, prior to Brady Kilgore this past weekend, that I came up with on short notice was Jay Staehr. Jay was actually a four event state qualifier and was a three event state medal winner. Like Kilgore, he was a hurdler and jumper. In the 1994 meet he placed 4th in the 300 hurdles with a time of 41.29, was 5th in the 110 meter hurdles in 15.5, and 5th in the triple jump at 44’6”.2. He also long jumped 20’6” but failed to make the finals.
Come on readers, send me some of your memories of former Kimball High or Potter, Dix or Banner County athletes who did great things at the state meet. I can also remember some outstanding Bushnell track people as well. I know Dean Haines will have some fond memories of his teammates of the mid 1960 era, but we won’t find many stories about athletes who won three medals at one Sate Track Meet.
State golf is the big story this week and our Kimball High Boy’s Golf Team is at the Class C Tournament in Kearney after winning their fourth consecutive District championship this past week. The Tournament being held at the Meadow Larks Hills Course is a two day event that was to be held this past Tuesday-Wednesday. We are going to try and squeeze in the first day results in this week’s Observer sports, but the final day will be after our deadline to print, so we will bring you all the details next week. In the meantime . . . GOOD LUCK LONGHORNS!