An excellent District Cross Country Meet for the Kimball High team with the boy’s qualifying as a team and the girl’s missing by a mere 4 points. This means that coach Tiffany Culek is taking her boy’s team back to state for the third consecutive year but will have to settle for qualifying two girls as individuals. On a near perfect day for running at the Grant Golf Course, the Kimball boys finished runner-up in the team standings bringing home the second place plague to add to the KHS trophy case. Dundy County-Stratton captured first place with 33 points with Kimball runner up with 48 and Paxton third with 51. The top three teams and the top individual runners advance to the state meet being held at the Kearney Country Club Golf Course TOMORROW (Friday). The Class D girls, which includes Kimball, will run at 1 p.m. Kimball time, and the Kimball boys will toe the line at 2 p.m. Kimball time. Behind the top three teams were Chase County 56, North Platte St Pats 81, Eustis-Farnam/Medicine Valley 88, Maxwell 99, Perkins County 120, and Sutherland 120. Kimball had two runners finish in the top 15 medal group with senior Shawn Nagel making his fourth trip to the state meet with his 11th place finish and time of 19:17. Daniel Evertson, a junior, finished just ahead of his team mate Nagel running 10th in 19:08, and this will be his second trip to state. Senior Sean Ganskow was Kimball’s third runner finishing 18th with a time of 20:07 and this is his first trip to state. Lyle Janicek, a senior, would have been making his third trip to state, but will give up his position on the team after running 19th at the district meet with a time of 20:08, a step behind Ganskow. The multi talented Janicek knew ahead of race time that he would not be making the trip to state as he committed some time back to miss the state cross country and attend the National FFA convention in Indianapolis as 1 of 82 selected to sing in the National FFA Choir made up of singers from all over the United States. Despite knowing this, Lyle ran one of his best races of his career as he helped his team qualify, and his spot will be filled now by freshman Patrick Dillon. Kimball’s other two runners at District were senior Robert Eby who ran 28th in 20:38 and he is making a return trip to the state meet. Spencer Luppen ran 36th and this will be his first trip to state. The Kimball boys program has been exceptional under the direction of coaches Tiffany Culek and Laurie Janicek, as they have qualified all three years that these coaches have been in charge of the program. Of note, the Kimball boys missed going to state by a single point four years back. Coach Culek called it “Heartbreaking” that her girls team missed qualifying by a mere 4 points as they finished fourth in the team standings. The competition was close for the top three spots with Dundy County-Stratton winning with 48 points, followed by Eustis-Farnam/Medicine Valley with 54, North Platte St Pats 58, and KIMBALL 62. Behind the top four were Morrill with 69, Perkins County 95, Southwest 98, Bridgeport 144, Bayard 146, Cambridge 183, Crawford 184, and Paxton 220. The Lady Longhorns were not shut out however with two individual qualifiers. Senior Kayli Rageth had Kimball’s top finish of the day running 7th with a time of 17:30 and this will be her fourth straight trip to the state meet. Kaitlin Moritz ran 12th to finish in the coveted top 15 and the gutsy junior will be making her third trip to state with her time of 17:54. Freshman Hailey Keller ran 21st in 18:35, Megan Woods was 36th in 19:40, Sadie Sullivan 38th in 19:46, and Jordain Gawith 45th in 20:11. Coach Culek had girls who were still recovering from bouts with the flu and showed lots of character in trying to get the job done. With only Rageth and Sullivan graduating this year, the Lady Horns will return a talented group of young runners. “It really was sad our girls came so close and missed by only one place and 4 points” said Culek. The girls have qualified twice in the last three years. Culek said that Rageth has an excellent chance of a state medal. “Kayli has met all of her goals this year and she has a good shot at finishing in the top 15 this year,” Culek said. Among the highlights of the meet for Kimball was the strong finish in the final stretch by Evertson and Nagel in the boy’s race as they made certain they were going regardless. They had to out leg a group of runners who had the same goal in mind. The same thing applies to Moritz who was recovering from illness. Moritz was in a tight group of runners as they blazed down the final stretch and she held them off for her 12th place finish. Freshman Hailey Keller shows great promise as does Megan Woods who really stepped up at the district meet with this young duo running third and fourth for Kimball’s team. Senior Sullivan, a two time state qualifier, and sophomore Jordain Gawith, who ran at state last year as a freshman, have both been battling illness and gave it their all. Despite not feeling up to par, Sullivan ran 38th and Gawith 45th from the field of 77 girls. There were 63 boys at the start of their race. Coach Culek said despite the disappointment of the girls not qualifying as a team, she was pleased with the way all of the runners competed. “Our times were not as good as we have ran at meets during the season, but neither were time comparisons of other schools and their runners. I don’t know what the problem was as the course did not look that tough. I was especially proud of Lyle as he knew he would not be a part of the state team, but in fact he was as he ran so well to help the team qualify. He met his goal of running in the top twenty,” Culek said. The Kimball team will leave today (Thursday) and again, will run at 1 and 2 p.m. Kimball time on Friday at the Kearney Country Club Golf Course. We wish you the best!