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

Malson A Top 10 Finisher At Ogalla Cross Country Invitational

Chantel Malson ran to yet another top ten finish at last week's Ogallala Cross Country Invite. The talented young sophomore ran 10th in the field of 114 varsity girl runners and her time of 21:49.4 moved her up into 2nd all time in the Kimball High School sophomore records for the 5K distance.

Malson's personal best was just one of the personal best times ran by a Kimball girl as Raven Johnson duplicated that feat with her time of 26:41.09 to finish 74th. Brandi Councilman ran a season best time of 28:48.8 and ran 92nd. Alycia Vrbas ran 112th with a time of 34:33.69.

The Ogallala Invite attracted a lot of big school teams with 15 total for the girls and 17 for the boys. McCook won the girl's team honors with 35 points edging out Chadron with 37. Sidney took top team honors for the boys with 22 points with McCook runnerup with 46.

A huge field of 180 runners took part in the boy's varsity division and Conner Cluff was in Kimball's top high school boy running a personal best time of 20:31.7 to finish 73rd. Matthew Johnson ran 91st in 21:16.7, Cole Henton was 111th in 22:16.2, Xavier Thomas-Lewis 159th in 24:53.8. Kimball's best team finish of the day was in the high school boy's junior varsity race where they finished 4th with 62 points but individual placings and times were not included in the official standings released.

There were 68 girls in the junior high 3,000 meter run and Kimball had 4 participants. Shannon Marks ran 51st in 17:04, Karleigh Leslie 60th in 19:06, Ashlie Barker 62nd in 19:32, and Kylie Osborn 63rd in 19:41.

The boy's junior high field attracted 102 runners and once again Cody Brinkman was Kimball's top runner with a personal best time of 12:34.9. Fernando Raymundo ran 28th in 12:51.2 for a personal record time. Braylon Miller ran a season best time of 13:22 for 48th place. Joseph Bremer ran 61st in 14:05.6, and Trenton Hottell ran 63rd in 14:12.2. Brandon Paxton ran 84th with his PR time of 15:42.9, Aaron Gillming ran 94th in 17:07, Patrick Howard 97th with a PR time with 18:05, Draco Miller 98th in 18:44, and Landon Norberg 99th with a season best time of 18:45.

Coach Tiffany Johnson is happy to see her runners improving and running seasonal and personal all time best times. The Longhorns have 3 meets remaining on their schedule before District including a meet today (Thursday) at Gothenburg, a meet in Grant October 10th for the SPVA, and a meet the next day on October 11th at Bayard for the Western Trails Conference. District is set for October 17th.