Boys first, girls second at Cody

Posted 4/1/14

The Panther boys won their side of the meet with 163 points. Cody was second with 115 and Lovell took third with 96.5.

The Panther girls finished 13.5 points behind Cody to take second place with a score of 125.5. Lovell was third on the girls’ …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Boys first, girls second at Cody

Posted

Eight Panthers qualify for state in season’s first meet  

The Powell High School track teams qualified eight athletes for state in 11 events as both the boys and girls shined during a sunny but windy day at the Yellowstone Sports Medicine Invitational Saturday in Cody.

The Panther boys won their side of the meet with 163 points. Cody was second with 115 and Lovell took third with 96.5.

The Panther girls finished 13.5 points behind Cody to take second place with a score of 125.5. Lovell was third on the girls’ side with a team score of 93.5.

Five PHS boys stamped their ticket to state in the season’s opening meet.

Seniors Garrett Lynch (shot put, discus), Hayden Cragoe (pole vault) Garrett Michael (discus) and Brendon Phister (pole vault) all pre-qualified as did junior Kalei Smith (110 meter hurdles).

Three Panther girls pre-qualified for state on Saturday. Seniors Tori Sleep and Shawnea Harrington did so with a 1-2 finish in both the shot put and discus and sophomore Anissa Warner made it with a first-place showing in the high jump.

PHS head coach Scott Smith said it’s “fairly unusual at this time of the year” to see that many pre-qualifications.

“I was really, really happy with some of the times and distances we had,” Smith said.

Most final results were well below the Panthers’ seed time, which in most cases was their personal best from last season.

Lynch won the shot put with a throw of a 54 feet, 9.5 inches (seed distance was 55’5.75”), and the discus with a throw of 161 feet, 6 inches.

The extreme winds played a big part in times and distances.

Coach Smith said even “250-pound guys were having trouble keeping their balance in the ring.

“It knocks your times down actually in all the running events,” Smith said. “(But) it’s hard for everybody so you just suck it up and go.”

Cragoe and Phister finished first and second, respectively, in the pole vault. Both cleared a top height of 13 feet, 6 inches, but Cragoe did so with fewer missed attempts.

Cragoe took fifth in the long jump with a try of 19 feet, 5.75 inches.

Phister was second in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 43.90 seconds.

Smith took first in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.30. He also took second in the 100-meter dash (12.19 seconds) and third in the high jump (5-feet, 10-inches).

Michael was fourth in discus with his qualifying throw of 139 feet, 3 inches, which was more than six feet better than his seed distance of 132 feet, 9 inches. Michael also took fifth in shot put.

Senior Zander Andreasen was the winner of the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:06.36. He took second in the 1600-meters with a time of 4:53.79.

Chris England took first in the 100-meter dash. His time of 12.15 seconds was .04 seconds ahead of Smith, and .08 seconds ahead of third place. England was second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.35 and sixth in the 400.

Senior Matt Abraham ran the 400-meter dash in 53.71 to claim second.

“Even in the wind he bettered what he did in indoors by about a second,” Smith said.

Junior Riley Stringer finished behind Lynch for second in the shot put with a throw of 45 feet, 2 inches.

Senior Matthew Widdicombe was fifth in both the 200- and 400-meter dashes. He also took sixth in pole vault and tied for ninth in the high jump (5 feet, 8 inches). Jackson Griffin finished 13th with his jump of 5 feet, 6 inches.

“Jackson Griffin and Matt Widdicombe did a really nice job,” Smith said. “Matt was three inches better than last year and Jackson Griffin (set a personal record) by one inch.”

Ezra Andreasen took fifth in the 3200-meter run, which featured returning state placers in the top four places.

Cody Akin (1600 meters), Nate Magill (110-meter hurdles) and Carter Baxter (shot put) all finished sixth.

Like the boys, the PHS girls had five first-place finishes.

Sleep took the shot put with a personal best throw of 38 feet, 9 inches (seed was 38 feet) and she won the discus with a toss of 120 feet, 9 inches.

Danna Hanks won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 53.18 despite the wind. She also was the runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles (17.26).

“Danna Hanks’ and Brendon Phister’s times were really, really good for those conditions,” Smith said.

Kalina Smith won the 100-yard dash with a time of 13.58, a mild surprise to Coach Smith. He is not related to the athlete.

“Winning the 100 as a freshman ... we knew she was fast (but) it was a good field that they ran against,” the coach said.

Warner’s high jump of 5 feet, 1 inch was her personal best and good for first place. She tied for fourth in the long jump with a mark of 15 feet, 1.75 inches and was fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 33 feet, 5 inches.

Harrington took two of the Powell girls’ four second-place finishes. She was right behind Sleep in the shot put (26 feet, 5 inches) and discus (117 feet, 1 inch).

Senior KaDee Harrison ran the 200-meter dash in 28.01 for second place.

Bailey Sanders took third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:40.71 and was sixth in the first 400-meter dash she ever ran with a time of 1:05.75.

“She was right behind KaDee (Harrison) so that was really, really nice to see,” Smith said of Sanders’ 400-meter performance.

Senior Lex Brady took fourth in the shot put and discus, giving Powell three of the top four female finishers in both events. Brady threw 33 feet, 5 inches in the shot put and 98 feet, 8 inches in the discus.

The Panthers’ first outing was a definite success, their coach said, but they were far from where they want to be at the season’s end.

“All the kids know, and we know, what we need to work on,” Smith said.

The Panthers have two meets this weekend to hopefully set some new personal bests and get more athletes qualified for state. And it would be nice to compete in decent weather, Smith joked.

Powell will hope for some more cooperation from Mother Nature when the team competes in Worland at 2 p.m. Thursday and again in Riverton at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

Comments