Sports

Greenhill’s Kim Briant a true multiple T&F threat

BY GREG FORD Sports Editor

Photography: Courtesy

Photo: Kim Briant of Greenhill has demonstrated an ability to win at both in running and in field events.

The weather Saturday was not the best for track and field. Even Kim Briant, a junior at the Greenhill School, acknowledged that.

“It was actually kind of fun in the rain,” Briant said. “As long as you know why you’re there it’s not distracting.”

Briant knew why she was at the First Baptist Academy Saints Relay:; to win. She did just that, finishing first in the pole vault (8-6), the triple jump (32-8) and the 300-meter hurdles (47.46).

Briant finished second in the 100-meter hurdles (17:25), but it should be noted that the time was the one she ran in a qualifying heat. The final race was cancelled because of the weather, so the qualifying times were used instead.

Overall, the Greenhill girls finished second to Arlington Pantego Christian, 88-85.

Briant is a key component for the Lady Hornets’ attempt to repeat as the Southwest Preparatory Conference champions. Currently, she leads the team with 113 individual points following the First Baptist meet. Her performances during the SPC championships last year definitely contributed to the team’s championship title.

“She’s just a tremendous athlete,” Greenhill head track coach Tom Holodak said. “She plays volleyball for our varsity in the fall, and has for the last two years. It’s something you don’t teach, she just has that tenacity, where she just works so hard. You wouldn’t know it by the way she acts. She doesn’t walk around with a big head at all and she is a team player out there with the other girls and boys.”

Briant has been involved in track and field since middle school, where she ran relays, ran hurdles and did the triple jump.

It was not until she reached the high school level did the coaches ask her to try the pole vault.

That, according to Holodak, was done in part because the staff knew she had a gymnastics background that would come in handy in the event. Briant said a coach asked her to try the event as a sophomore after the SPC championships during her freshman year.

“It looked interesting, so I tried it,” Briant said.

She now owns the school record of 10 feet, which she cleared Tuesday at the Cistercian Relays.

“I think you have to be able to have fun with it,” Briant said. “I think it is more of mental thing. You think about it when you are on the ground and then you just make it work when you’re doing it.”

Briant will not disregard her other events just to concentrate on the pole vault.

She also wants to improve in the triple jump, the 300-meter hurdles, and the 4x100 relay, and shows interest in other events.

“I think I would like to do a heptathlon (seven events), maybe,” Briant said. “A decathlon would be cool, but I don’t know much about that.”