By CONOR NICHOLL
Goodland 6-foot junior Lindsey Cure is part of the well-known Cowgirl group that has significantly turned around volleyball and basketball. From ’16-19, Goodland volleyball won a combined 34 matches. The Cowgirls went 71-16 combined the last two seasons and qualified for state both years.
This winter, Goodland basketball finished 24-2 and won the 3A state title with a championship game victory versus Hugoton. The Cowgirls qualified for state for the first time since ’06 and won the program’s first state title in 1980. Cure was honorable mention all-league in basketball. She comes from a family of five children, notably her older brother Leyton, who was Goodland’s standout quarterback for multiple years. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Leyton is currently listed as a tight end on Fort Hays’ roster.
This spring, Cure is the only returner, boy or girl, who competed for Goodland track at the 2021 state meet. Cure could single-handedly help Goodland track enjoy a sizable turnaround.
Cure has only been throwing javelin for three weeks. She broke the 26-year-old school record in javelin with a toss of 129 feet, 2 inches. She currently ranks tenth for all classes and leads 3A, per Kansas historian Carol Swenson.
As of last Wednesday, Cure ranked in the top-30 for all classes and third in 3A in the 100 hurdles in 16.22 seconds. Lakin’s Alyssa Edgington paces 3A and ranks in the top-five. Cure is also in the top-30 and top-five in 3A in the 300 hurdles at 49.34.
Plus, Cure is among 3A’s top 200-meter runners.
The April 19 Scott City meet is annually one of the bigger track invitationals in southwest Kansas. Goodland girls took fourth with 35 points in an 18-team competition. The Goodland boys tied for eighth with 22 points.
In an elite 200-meter race, Cure won in 28.43 seconds. That defeated Hoisington senior Macy Hanzlick (28.48), Phillipsburg junior Taryn Sides (28.73) and Hugoton junior Mikyn Hamlin (28.74).
Sides, a top-5 all-classes basketball player and Kansas State commit, currently ranks second in 3A in the 200 with 26.40 seconds.
Last season, Cure finished eighth in the 300 hurdles at state with 48.4 seconds. She took ninth in the 100 hurdles with 16.18 seconds.
The last time Goodland had a girl finish better than fourth came in 2014 when Margaux Thompson took third in the pole vault. She was the first Goodland girl track state placer since ’03, per KSHSAA archives.
In ’02-03, Rachel Hagerman (100 hurdles), and Jayci Stone (pole vault, high jump) finished second. Hagerman is the last Goodland girl state track champion when she won the 100 hurdles in ’01. That the only one since 1994.
Last season, Goodland boys qualified Mason Murray and Leyton Cure to state. Murray and Cure were ninth and 11th in the 110-meter hurdles. Cure earned state runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles when he posted a 40.47. Jackson Daise posted 11th in the triple jump. Cure also qualified in the javelin throw, though did not place. Goodland boys scored eight points at the state meet.
Goodland girls tallied six points, all from two qualifiers: Mikayla Biermann finished fourth in the 3,200 run and Lindsey Cure’s eighth in the 300 hurdles (48.40).
On April 11, Goodland completed in its track meet. Goodland finished fourth out of six schools with 65 points. Cure easily won the 300 hurdles in 49.34 seconds. She took second in the javelin with a throw of 104 feet, 1 inch. That only trailed Colby senior Brooklyn Jones, who posted 115-7 and has signed with NCAA Division II Metro State (Colo.). Lindsey also won the 200 meters in 28.17 seconds.
Freshman Linkon Cure won the 300 hurdles with 44.40 seconds and ran on the winning 1,600 relay in 3:47.18.
At Scott City, Cure was second in the 100 hurdles with her 16.22. She trailed Edgington at 15.69. Cure was third in the 300 hurdles in 50.60.
She posted her 129-2 in the javelin, four feet ahead of Jones. No one else cleared 103. In the 200, Cure won the close race. She, Hanzlick, Sides and Hamlin were all within .31 seconds. Hamlin has committed to Wyoming basketball.
