Three Powell High School runners — JuliaKay O'Neill, Emily Sweet and Dylan Cordes — competed at the State Indoor Track meet on March 3-4 in Gillette.

Powell does not have an indoor track team, so PHS students who wanted to compete in the sport this year ran with the Lovell High School team.

“It was really nice of them to let us run with them, because they didn’t have to do that,” Sweet said of the Lovell squad.

Sweet competed in two events — the 200 meter dash and the 55 meter hurdles. The junior finished 27th in the 55 meter hurdles in a time of 10.75 seconds and 58th in the 200 meter dash, with a time of 34.81.

O'Neill, a fellow junior, also competed in two events. She finished 18th in the 400 meter dash in 1:04.96 and 11th in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:28.09.

Cordes ran in the 1600 meter event and finished 40th with a time of 5:24.15.

All three PHS runners said they enjoyed the indoor track season and like the sport because it has a relaxed atmosphere and is fun. The indoor track season also serves as a preseason to the outdoor track season for the three.

“I think that more people should go out for indoor track if they are not involved for a winter sport because even if they don’t do track, it is a really good way to stay in shape for, like, soccer,” said O'Neill. “I just think it is a really good sport to do.”

In indoor track, the track is half of the size of an outdoor track and so a 200 meter run is one lap instead of half a lap. All classes of high schools compete with each other in the sport.

The indoor track season was fairly brief; the runners competed in two meets before the culminating state event.

“Running is definitely my favorite sport,” said Sweet, explaining how it’s both an individual sport and a team sport.

“You’re trying to better yourself,” she said.

“I really love indoor track because it’s a really fun season,” added O'Neill. “It’s pretty short, but I get to get a head start on outdoor track and it’s a great way to get in shape and stay busy during the winter.”

Cordes, who is a freshman, said he “does it for the love of track — and that’s what’s great with the training, because we love track.”

Both O'Neill and Cordes hope to get a scholarship to run in college. Sweet plans to continue running after high school, just not competitively; she plans to major in pre-med and one day become a surgeon.

With the indoor track season now over, all three runners thanked outdoor track head coach Scott Smith for putting in the time to train them at PHS. Without Smith’s help during the indoor season, the runners would have had to commute to Lovell each day after school for practice.

“... He’s not paid, but it’s so great that he’s willing to stay after school and train us,” O'Neill said of the coach.

Added Sweet, “He makes it so that we can stay in Powell and work hard.”