Track, soccer teams finish strong

(Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series looking back at the region’s sports highlights from 2011. This issue covers the months of May through August.)

In case a reminder is needed, Mother Nature was not on her best behavior for area sports programs in May 2011.

Rain and snow washed out just about everything in the first week of May. For the Powell Pioneers, who were attempting to get an earlier start to the season than they had in previous years, the result was a 16-day window in which six of eight scheduled games found themselves washed out by rain and sleet.

For those attending the state soccer tournament, it meant enduring through one of the wettest days in recent memory. For those at the opening ceremony of the state track and field championships, it meant watching as competitors built snowmen on the infield grass.

When the weather relented and allowed competition to take place, the results for area teams were favorable.

After surviving the first-ever round of play-in games for the 3A state soccer tournament, Powell’s boys did something no other team had accomplished by capturing the consolation trophy with a 6-2 thrashing of Torrington. The win was only made possible by a come-from-behind win over rival Worland the previous day and marked the first time the boys’ soccer program had returned from state with a trophy.

For the team members, who lost 11 matches to ranked opponents during a brutal regular-season schedule, the win was vindication for a program head coach Travis Rapp had insisted all year was one of 3A’s top five teams.

The euphoria from the victory was tainted one week later when, due to an unknown switch in meeting times, Powell coaches were unable to attend the meeting where all-state and all-conference awards were determined. The result was no Panthers on the post-season lists.

Not to be outdone, the Panther track teams enjoyed their own special month of May. After earning eight top-three finishes at the Wyoming Track Classic in early May, the team roared into the post-season with the boys’ team capturing its fourth state title in six years and the girls finishing as the state runner-up, its best finish since 2000.

The program’s state success had been hinted at the previous week at regional competition in Pinedale. The Panthers peaked at just the right moment, producing 40 season-best times and distances. The result was an almost unheard of 72 event slots qualified for the state meet as Powell’s boys and girls combined to score nearly 400 team points at the 3A West meet.

Track season was also a time for rewriting record books. In mid-May, it was the foursome of Desiree Murray, Kassey MacDonald, Sierra Morrow and Tally Wells who became the first 4x800 relay team in school history to break the 10-minute barrier. The foursome shaved seven seconds off the previous school record to update a time that had stood for 22 years.

Kyle Sullivan etched his name into the Wyoming record book when he unleashed a Saturday time of 14.35 seconds in the finals of the 110-meter hurdles at the state meet. The time was a new 3A class record for the event and earned Sullivan one of his three championship medals.

Even the middle school got into the action. Powell Cub Anissa Warner cleared 4-10 in the high jump, removing a record that had withstood 14 years of challenge at Powell Middle School. Warner’s record-setting clearance came only after coaches prompted meet officials to re-open the event — Warner officially won the competition by clearing the bar at 4-6 and initially meet workers had attempted to stop the competition once her victory was official.

Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, Warner matched the mark three weeks later.

Classmate Danna Hanks also found her way into the middle school record book. With a time of 33.17 in the 200-meter hurdles, Hanks rewrote a school best that had been on the books for 22 years.

May is also the time for end-of-year award programs at both Powell High School and Northwest College. For PHS athletes, Sullivan and Olivia Rogers were named the boys’ and girls’ athletes of the year. At Northwest, two-sport standout Val Lesu and wrestling national champion Nick Petersen were named the athletes of the year on the women’s and men’s side, respectively. The Trapper Awards, given by the coaching staff to the athletes who best represent the school, were bestowed upon basketball players Megan Smith and Chantz Ramos.

In the rodeo arena, the spring and early summer months saw a number of stories. Northwest College’s Jordan Gill wrapped up the college rodeo season by capturing the Big Sky Region’s bareback title and representing NWC at the College National Finals Rodeo.

It was another bareback rider with area ties that made headlines once the CNFR began, however. Cowley cowboy J.R. Vezain threw together a string of stellar rides to earn the 2011 CNFR bareback national champion title.

Former Trapper Shane Proctor enjoyed a welcome home of sorts when he returned to the Cody Arena for the 2011 Xtreme Bulls tour stop over the July 4 holiday. Proctor, who began his rodeo career as a member of the Trappers’ program, survived a pair of eight-second rides to kick off Cowboy Christmas with a handsome payday in front of an appreciative crowd that stood in ovation as he took a victory lap around the arena.

As always, the summer months held plenty of baseball for Powell fans. For followers of the American Legion Powell Pioneers, much of that baseball was played on the road.

An unfortunate series of short-notice cancellations robbed Pioneer fans of the team’s usual Heavy Metal Classic summer tournament. Similarly, a decision by Green River not to travel to Powell later in July — an announcement team officials first learned of from a radio broadcaster — removed the team’s longest home-stand of the season from the books. Fittingly, the season’s end was also impacted when Rawlins failed to make a planned trip north for the regular season finale at Ed Lynn Field.

When they were able to take the field, the Pioneers posted 30 regular-season wins. The postseason was a different story.

After earning the top seed from the Northwest quadrant, the Pioneers suffered a 12-4 upset loss to Douglas to begin regional tournament play. Two games later, the team was denied the chance to defend its state title by being eliminated shy of a state qualifying berth by Casper.

Powell’s Babe Ruth team, also trying to run its streak to three consecutive regional tournament appearances, was unable to match the success of recent summers and was eliminated at the state tournament. The 13-year-old team also missed on a chance to extend its season beyond the state level.

Instead, this was a summer for the younger guys. Powell’s 9-10 year-olds were the last baseball team playing. The Little Leaguers qualified for state, eventually finishing fourth at Gillette.

The late summer months saw a new activity debut in Powell as remote control dirt racing dropped a green flag at Homesteader Park for the first time. More than a dozen enthusiasts climbed the control stand to take their turns guiding RC vehicles through the turns, bumps and jumps.

The middle months of 2011 were also a time for large accomplishments. Cody golfer Gabe Maier qualified for his second appearance at an NCAA regional golf event as a member of the University of Wyoming golf team. Maier was in position to qualify for the national championship with nine holes to play at the regional event, but a string of five birdies in six holes by a challenger placed Maier in a position to need to gamble for a birdie on the 18th hole. Instead, Maier carded a triple bogey to miss advancing.

Ed Baxter, a familiar face in the world of arm wrestling, was honored with induction into the Wyoming Hall of Fame in 2011. The moment was a highlight in Baxter’s career, which took him to multiple foreign countries and national and international championship events.

As summer began its August transition toward fall, Northwest College introduced Kaylin Olivas as interim women’s soccer coach. The local high school and college teams geared up for fall competition by starting practices.

Powell High School’s golf team officially raised the curtain on the 2011-2012 season by participating in a tournament at Lander. The event was stopped nine holes early as an abundance of grasshoppers on the course was judged to have created unplayable conditions on some of the greens.

From that bizarre beginning, nobody could have imagined what the latter months of the year might hold for PHS teams.