Kimball's Malson Qualifies For State

Kimball High sophomore Chantel Malson is the Longhorns' lone qualifier for this Friday's Nebraska State cross country meet to be held at the Kearney Country Club Golf Course.

The talented young distance ace finished in 10th place at last week's District Class D meet to qualify as an individual. Her qualifying time was 22:25 at the Bridgeport Courthouse and Jailrock Golf Course.

This is Miss Malson's second trip to the State meet, having qualified a year ago as a freshman runner – also finishing 10th in last year's District meet.

The top three teams and top 15 individuals earn qualifying spots in the state meet.

The top 3 boys teams at Bridgeport were Hershey with 30 points, St Patrick 38 and Perkins County 66. The Kimball boys were in eighth place in the field of 12 teams with 133 points. The top 3 girls teams were St Patrick with 24, Bayard 38 and Bridgeport 40. Kimball scored 111 to finish seventh in the field of eight girls teams.

Coach Tiffany Johnson, speaking on the performance of her Longhorn squad, said, "It wasn't our best day. However, I am proud of all of our runners and how they improved throughout the season."

As far as the weather at Bridgeport, Johnson said, "It was a nice warm day with losts of bugs."

Along with Malson's 10th place finish in the girls race, Raven Johnson ran 44th in 27:34, Brandi Councilman 55th in 30:44, and Alycia Vrbas 63rd in 38:34.

Connor Cluff was Kimball's top boy runner, finishing 31st in the field of 91 runners with a time of 20:19. Matthew Johnson ran 40th in 21:04, Rene Raymundo 44th in 21:18, Cole Henton 71st in 23:44, Xavier Thomas-Lewis 83rd in 25:53, and Lane Wasielewski 87th in 26:35.

A tunnel walk will be held this morning (Thursday) at Kimball High before Malson and her coaches depart for Kearney, where she will complete tomorrow (Friday).

We send our best wishes along with Miss Malson as she winds down her sophomore season with a return trip to State!