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Indians host League for Jr. Sr. Teams

by Joslyn Ketzner

The Saint Francis Community Junior and Senior High School held the Northwest Kansas Track and Field League meet on Thursday, May 10. Both junior and senior high teams did an excellent job. The high school Indians won first place with 209 points. The high school Lady Indians placed sixth with 55 points. The eighth grade Lady Indians won first place with 117 points. The eighth grade Indians did not place, but with the few boys they had they managed to score 24 points. The sixth and seventh grade Lady Indians placed second place with 84 points, and the Indians placed fourth with 81 points. 

Temperatures reached 90 degrees on Thursday, which made for a very hot and windy day. 

KC Krien, junior, said, he enjoyed cheering on his sister for the first time this year at a track meet. “I was most excited about being able to watch my sister, Ellee [Krien, seventh grader,] and my cousin Ben [Busse, seventh grader,] do their events. I have been wanting to watch them all season, but have not had the chance, due to practices and meets of my own,” Krien said. 

Emileigh Dinkel, senior; and Cody Baxter, junior; have been hurt since the beginning of the season. Dinkel rolled her ankle and will be having surgery at the end of May. Baxter hurt his meniscus; he had surgery and two months of physical therapy. The high school team was happy to have all both of them back, especially for league and regionals. Dinkel said it was hard for her to do a lot with a hurt ankle, but she was able to throw the javelin. Dinkel said, “I am so happy to be able to go to a track meet and do an event instead of sitting there watching everyone.” 

Baxter was cleared to run and do fields events, he ran the 300 meter hurdles and took first at the meet. Baxter said, “Wow, I did not think I would win, but man that was cool. I was so nervous I would fall or false start.” 

Caleb Todd, eighth grader, said, he enjoyed having the high schoolers cheering them on during the meet. “I thought it was cool the high schoolers got to help with the events, it was like hanging with the ‘cool’ kids all day.”         

Rian Zimbal, seventh grader, and Molly Gilliland, eighth grader agreed it was great weather for a track meet. Zimbal said, “I would rather it be really hot than freezing. We went to a track meet in Tribune and it was snowing. So this is awesome weather.”     

Junior high teams had a great year and we can’t wait to see what they do next year. The high school teams will travel to Smith Center next week on Friday, May 18 for regionals and the following week they will travel to Wichita for state track on May, 25th and 26th for the largest track meet in the nation.