Lady panthers take second as 12 events qualify for state

Powell’s boys dominated action on the track last Thursday as the Panthers comfortably won the boys’ team title at the season’s opening meet in Cody. The Panther girls finished as runner-up behind cross-county rival Cody.

The Panthers cashed in on an unseasonable day of 60 degree temperatures and light wind to pre-qualify 12 events for the state meet in May.

“It was a great first meet,” said Panther track coach Scott Smith. “We got some automatic qualifiers and some nice performances from our new comers. We saw a great competitive spirit out of the whole team.”

Senior Vince Sleep earned a return trip to the state championships in Casper in both the shot put and discus. Sleep took advantage of the absence of teammate Garrett Lynch from the throwing events and won first place in both the shot put and the discus.

Junior Hayden Cragoe and sophomore Kalei Smith both surpassed the time needed to qualify in the 110-meter hurdles. Both athletes also qualified in additional events. For Cragoe, a vault of 12-4 in the pole vault was enough to earn him a spot at state. Smith cleared 5-11 in the high jump to earn a spot in the state meet field in that event.

The Panther boys also pre-qualified a relay team for the state meet as Smith, Marshall McArthur, Brendon Phister and Blaise Gann surpassed the qualifying time needed to send the team to Casper automatically.

In addition to Sleep’s sweep of the throwing titles, the Panther boys earned first-place finishes from Mat Abraham in the 800 and Phister in the 300-meter hurdles. The 4x800 relay squad of McArthur, Zander Andreason, Drew Feller and Abraham also crossed the finish line first overall.

On the girls’ side, it was a fantastic track debut for freshman Anissa Warner. Warner pre-qualified for state in both the high jump and the triple jump. She missed by just 2 inches of adding a third event in the long jump.

Warner finished as the meet runner-up in the high jump after clearing 4-11. She placed third in both the long and triple jumps.

The remaining three automatic qualifying performances turned in by the Panther girls also came in field events. Jada Swires’ leap of 33-3 in the triple jump was good enough for fourth place overall and was exactly the distance needed to guarantee her a spot in the state field at Casper. Tori Sleep and Shawnea Harrington, who placed second and third, respectively, in the discus, exceeded the minimum distance needed to reach Casper. Both recorded throws of more than 110 feet to begin the year.

Swires, Sleep and Harrington are all juniors.

The Panther girls were winners of two events on Thursday as defending 3A state champion Cody won all but three events on the girls’ side of the meet. Junior KaDee Harrison raced to a first-place finish in the 200 meters. The foursome of Bailey Sanders, Gretchen Morretti, Sierra Morrow and Tally Wells brought the baton home ahead of the field in the 4x800 relay for the Panthers.

“We found out the specific things we need to work on,” Smith said. “I was very happy to find the amount of potential for both the boys’ and girls’ teams. It looks to be a very fun season.”

Powell resumes track action Thursday as the team travels to Worland for an invitational meet.

Girls results — Cody 139, Powell 74,

Lovell 25, Rocky Mountain 3.

200 — 1. KaDee Harrison 28.08, 4. SarahJean O’Neill 30.41.

400 — 6. SarahJean O’Neill 1:08.38.

800 — 4. Tally Wells 2:39.88, 5. Sierra Morrow 2:47.31, 6. Bailey Sanders 3:04.37.

100m hurdles — 3. Lexee Craig 18.56, 4. Megan Wagner 18.71, 8. Mikaila Moore 19.73.

300m hurdles — 3. Megan Wagner 54.67.

4x400 relay — 2. Brooke Lensegrav, SarahJean O’Neill, Tally Wells and Bailey Sanders 4:33.21.

4x800 relay — 1. Bailey Sanders, Gretchen Morretti, Sierra Morrow and Tally Wells 11:04.36.

Pole vault — 3. Devin Rausch 7-0, 5. Anne Condie 6-0.

Long jump — 3. Anissa Warner 15-7 1/2, 9. Jace Sharp 12-7.

Boys results — Powell 118.25, Cody 86.5, 3. Lovell 39.25, Rocky Mountain 12.

100 — 2. Jakob Bowers 12.11, 3. Garrett Lynch 12.21, 5. Tyler Patterson 12.41, 10. Ty Herd 12.47, 12. Chris England 12.59, 16. Vince Sleep 12.74, 17. Ryan Ferro 12.95, 18. Zac Schuler 13.02, 24. Carson Asher 14.00.

200 — 2. Chris England 25.36, 3. Ty Herd 25.48, 4. Tyler Patterson 25.57, 7. Zac Schuler 26.2, 8. Matthew Widdecombe 27.06, 11. Carson Asher 28.02, 12. Connor Hunt 29.09.

800 — 1. Mat Abraham 2:11.28, 3. Jakob Bowers 2:19.75, 5. Nic Urbach 2:27.99.

1600 — 2. Zander Andreasen 5:02.06, 4. Mat Abraham 5:13.69, 8. Teagan Cordes 5:31.52, 10. Ezra Andreason 5:42.91, 13. Challin Fike 6:10.0.