Another outstanding day for the Kimball High Cross Country teams at Hemingford on Friday with the Kimball girls winning the 2010 Western Trails Conference team championship and the Kimball boys finishing in the runner-up spot!

The Kimball girls won with a 22 point performance with Morrill second with 33 followed by Hemingford with 38 and Gordon/Rushville 46. Liz Trevino of Bayard was the individual winner with a time of 17:14 and Briley Hannaford of Hemingford ran second in 17:24. Kimball had three runners in the top ten medal group with sophomore Hailey Keller Kimball’s top runner finishing third with a time of 17:31 over the 4,000 meter course.

Freshman Laura Flores ran 5th in 17:59, and senior Kaitlin Moritz ran 8th in 19:07. All three runners were given All Conference status as the top ten receives this distinction. Jordain Gawith ran 15th in 20:43, and Dalton Luppen 23rd in 24:19. Coach Tiffany Johnson said she was happy with all of the runners.

“We talked prior to going to Hemingford and I told the girls I was going to be yelling some different things at them than usual if they were not running like I thought they were capable of. The girls really came ready to run today and I am so proud of all of them,” said coach Johnson.

Mitchell won the boy’s team title with 19 team points but Kimball was in the hunt finishing runner up with 27. Gordon/Rushville was third with 44, and Hemingford fourth with 59. Cole Wellnitz of Gordon/Rushville was the top boy runner with his time of 16:52 over the 5,000 meter course with Cody Franklin of Bridgeport second in 17:33. Kimball senior Daniel Evertson ran third in 17:50, and senior Spencer Luppen ran 9th in 19:18 to give Kimball two all conference runners.

Freshman Mitchell Shields was just one place out of an all conference finish running 11th in 19:45, and freshman team mate, Dominic Madrid ran 17th in 21:00.

Kimball had a gold medal winner on the day as Ryan Muneio won the junior high boy’s division and was the overall junior high champion with his time of 9:41 in a shorter race than the older runners partake in. Brayan Soto-Orengo ran 5th in 10:56, and Rowdy Keller ran 7th in 11:23. Coach Johnson was also quite pleased with the way the Kimball boys ran. “Our boys ran hard also and were close to taking the top honors. Daniel has been so steady all year. Spencer saw his hard work pay off by earning his first varsity cross country medal with his top ten finish and both were all conference. Mitchell came so close to a top ten finish” said coach Johnson.

Now it’s District time for the Longhorns and they are off to Ogallala TODAY (Thursday-Oct. 14) to run on the West Winds Golf Course with hopes of earning a trip to the upcoming State meet on the line. The top ten individuals and top three teams will advance to the state meet held in Kearney on October 22nd. The Kimball girls will go off at 3 p.m. and the Kimball boys at about 4 p.m. Congrats on the great job at conference and good luck at the District race.