Track impresses one more time

After working hard all season, suddenly the season was coming to a close for the Herd track team. On a beautiful Friday and Saturday last week, the regional meet was held at Campbell County High School in Gillette and wrapped up the 2017 regular season. Glenrock acquitted itself well in a crowded field, finishing a strong fifth out of 11 schools with 112 points in the overall team standings to conclude its initial season at the 2A level.

TJ Moulton also had a couple strong performances in qualifying for State, but said that the team’s involvement with each other was what really stuck out to him over the course of the meet.

“The atmosphere was really cool.

All the team was supporting each other, helping each other, cheering each other on, just being there for each other,” he said. “It’s been a fun weekend, and I like that the events are split over two days because as a distance runner, it gives you more time to recover between events.” Senior Josie Bryan said that she also enjoyed the two-day format as it gave her and the other athletes more time to recover between events and more down time in general.

“I like that you get to talk to more people and really get to know one another. You get to help the ones that are nervous for being at Regionals for the first time,” she said. “I just tried to encourage as many people as I could, on our team or not.”

Of course, the season continues an additional week for the athletes who qualified for the state meet. Coach Ryan Collier said that for the athletes who earned their state spot, this week was one just for fine-tuning the technique that they’ve been working on all year.

“The message this week for the kids is ‘do what you do, just go out and compete.’ We’re working on smaller technique-type stuff, making sure that everything is coming together and meshing in a certain way,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot left to do this season, just one more chance to compete, to do your job.

“Yeah, it’s the state meet, but it’s just another track meet and that’s what we really want to emphasize. Just go throw, go run, go jump and you’re going to be fine.”

Thirteen individual athletes and three relay teams will proudly represent the Herd at State this week when festivities commence on Thursday. For the girls, Elizabeth Albrandt will be running in the 3200-meter race, Annelise Clark will compete in the 300-meter hurdles, Mikalah Jones will throw the shot put and Morgan Schwindt will be participating in the pole vault and the 200-meter dash.

The boys traveling to Casper will be Ian Arnold (300m hurdles), Ty Bloem (triple jump), Tucker Bopp (200m, 400m), Logan Downs (shot put), Gannon Guenther (110m hurdles), TJ Moulton (800m, 1600m), Skyler Piasecki (3200m, high jump), Garrett Schwindt (200m, pole vault) and Payton Steinmetz (long jump). The relay teams will consist of Bopp, Dom Griffitts, Schwindt and Steinmetz in the 4x100- meter, Bopp, Kale Kuhlman, Schwindt and Steinmetz in the 4x400-meter, and Moulton, Lane McDonald, Brysen Collier and Piasecki forming the 4x800- meter team.

Season-best marks were recorded this week by Brooke Williams (800m, 1600m), Elizabeth Albrandt (1600m), Gannon Guenther (300m hurdles), Allison Berge (shot put), Brock Jones (discus) and Kale Kuhlman (triple jump). Meanwhile, personal-best marks were scored by Garrett Schwindt (200m), Tucker Bopp (400m), Taylor Best (200m), Abby Nunez (200m), Morgan Schwindt (400m, pole vault), Josie Bryan (800m), TJ Moulton (800m, 1600m), Brysen Collier (800m), Syler Fleck (800m), Lane McDonald (1600m), Yesi Hermosillo (3200m), Skyler Piasecki (3200m), Keely Ottersbach (300m hurdles), Ian Arnold (300m hurdles, triple jump), Mandi Tvedt (shot put), Marissa Wintermote (long jump), Logan Downs (shot put, discus), Adrian Maas (pole vault), Ty Bloem (long jump, triple jump) and Cooper Fargen (long jump). The 95th annual Boys High School State Track Meet and the 48th annual Girls High School State Track Meet will be held at Kelly Walsh High School in
Casper on May 18-20. Due to inclement weather concerns, Thursday’s competition will consist of only three running events, starting at 11 a.m. The rest of the events will be completed on Friday
and Saturday.