Kit Carson’s amazing winning streak fell one game short of tying the all-time mark for consecutive wins in a 50-15 loss to Limon Thursday night. The three-time defending state champions entered the season winners of 77-straight and needed one more win to tie the mark of 78 in-a-row held by McClave. But returning one just senior and with a completely new lineup, the Wildcats came up short in their season opener against Limon. The Badgers are ranked #1 in Class 2A and now sit at 3-0 on the young season.
We had a chance to visit with Kit Carson coach Sara Crawford after the game. The audio is not the best quality but it’s provided below.
Now some thoughts on the game and the winning streak. First we give credit to Crawford for joining us for a short interview. It’s always difficult for a losing coach to talk about a game but this one as she said “stung a little bit more”. And lets also give some credit for Kit Carson in not changing their schedule with hopes to matching or even setting a new record. They could have tried to schedule a lesser opponent for their first game of the season or moved another game ahead of the date with Limon but chose not to. That, in our mind, shows plenty of respect for the game, the program and also McClave, the team that still holds the record.
The streak overall was tremendous and very dominant. Through the 77-games, only one was decided by single digits and that came on February 18th, 2017 in a 49-43 win over Kiowa. The remaining 76 wins were by at least 10 points apiece with only four others determined by 15 points or less. In the state finals, they won three games by 33, 24 and 20 points. And in the nine state tournament wins, one was by 50 points, another by 30 and five by at least 20. The narrowest margin of victory came in the 2018 semifinals when they survived a slow down effort to topple Fleming 43-28.
Before Thursday, Kit Carson had not dropped a regular season game since February 14, 2014 in a game vs Eads. They entered this year 123-2 over the past five years with both losses coming at the state tournament. That’s how close they were to turning their current string of three straight state championships into five in a row.
Kit Carson looks to begin a new streak of wins against Wiley on Friday. They were also scheduled to face Idalia on Saturday but that game will be rescheduled as the Wolves program and school is battling the flu.
