Brady Land brought home the fifth place medal in the Class C boys long jump from the 2010 Nebraska State Track and Field Championships to high light Kimball High’s efforts in Omaha. The talented Kimball High junior stayed consistent, as he has all season, in having a best jump of 21 feet 4.75 inches to finish fifth, less than 4 inches back of third place.

Coach Tom Perlinski said Land had his best jump on his first attempt in the prelims and followed that with two more jumps over 21 feet in the finals. His top jump at Burke Stadium was close to his all time best jump.

“We were quite pleased that Brady was able to bring back a state medal and if he continues to work hard next year he has the potential be become a state champion,” said coach Perlinski.

Land moved into the number four spot all time in the Kimball High top five long jump marks this season and looks to be a 22 foot plus jumper before he is done.

Jake Daum, also a junior at Kimball High, failed to qualify for the finals in the Class C 110 meter high hurdles. Perlinski said Daum was leading his prelim flight over 4 hurdles before he clipped the fifth hurdle.

“Jake was able to recover and finish the race, but it cost him valuable time that kept him from making the finals,” Perlinski said.

Daum ran 16.279 in his flight of the prelims, well off his season best time of 15.6 which he ran more than once, including at the district meet.

No hardware for any of the Kimball High girls at the State meet.

The 4x100 relay team was thought to have the best chance to place but actually ran their worst time of the season at 53.069. Kimball coaches said the Lady Longhorns had three bad hand-offs, unlike the perfect run at district when they won with a season best time of 51.3. With Cierra Pedersen the lone senior on the relay team, the Lady Longhorns return juniors Tori Hager, Whitney Lockwood, and Kaitlin Moritz and the Kimball relay team should be strong again next season.

In individual events, senior Kayli Rageth ran some 15 seconds slower than she did at the district meet clocking 13 minutes .139 seconds in the 3200 meter run on Friday. Hager, a junior speedster, failed to make the finals in either the 100 or 200 meter dashes with prelim times of 13.252 and 27.457. Moritz ran 17.004 in her prelim flight of the 100 meter hurdles and failed to advance to the finals, and did not place in the long jump with her best leap of 15-feet 9-inches.

“We didn’t have the best performances from our girls for whatever reason,” said coach Larry Pahl.

But none the less, all of the Kimball High athletes who made it to the State meet can be proud of all of their accomplishments this past spring, and the majority of all of the state qualifiers will be back for their senior season.

“Overall we had a good track season. I think our boys far exceeded what anyone thought we might do, and with lots of our athletes returning, and with improvement from our younger boys, and with some good incoming freshmen from this year’s eighth grade class, I feel we can compete well next year,” said Perlinski.

Coach Pahl echoed Perlinski in talking about the Kimball girls season. Along with the number of girls who qualified for the state meet, there were others just a place away from making the trip and should show enough improvement next year to become state qualifiers.

There are a large number of top quality incoming freshmen who will make some noise as well next year. Track and field is in good shape at Kimball High.