Kennett jumpers finally take flight

The Kennett High ski jumpers finally took flight last week, and did so without having had an opportunity to practice off a jump due to the farm weather. That makes Wednesday's fifth place showing at Proctor Academy all the more impressive."We're only going to get better," Chuck Broomhall said. "It's been tough for the jumpers with this sort of weather, but they deserve a lot of credit for sticking with it. We probably have more jumpers out this winter than we've ever had. On Wednesday we only had three jumpers who had ever been off a jump in competition before compete. For seven others it was their first meet and they loved it."Seventy-five jumpers from across the Granite State took part in the meet at Proctor Academy, who was able to host the meet due to snowmaking at the facility. Hanover took top team honors with 380.6 points while Kennett came in a respectable fifth with 314 points.Leading the way through the air for the Eagles was Parker Haynes, who placed fifth. He was followed by Mike Larson, 33rd; Hunter Haynes, 47th; Brandon Murphy, 53rd; Tom Caughey, 54th; Jeff Sires, 54th; Bart Cromwell, 63rd; Georg Kirbis, 64th; Laura Halupowski, 65th; and Dylan Murphy, 70th.The Eagles are hoping for a strong show of support this Friday (6 p.m.) when they host their first home meet of the season on the Kancamagus Highway. A number of schools who competed at Proctor are slated to travel to Conway for the event.