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“We had an amazing day,” said PMS girls’ coach Dale Ann Meeker. “The kids really rose to the occasion, and it was a quick turnaround for them. They had the conference meet, then two days later, they’re back on the track. There wasn’t …
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The Best of the Best Middle School Track Meet in Lander more than lived up to its name for the Powell Middle School track teams earlier this month. The Powell athletes posted a combined 104 personal bests set to go along with breaking two school records and one record tied.
“We had an amazing day,” said PMS girls’ coach Dale Ann Meeker. “The kids really rose to the occasion, and it was a quick turnaround for them. They had the conference meet, then two days later, they’re back on the track. There wasn’t much recovery time, but those kids stepped up and really performed. It was really a lot of fun.”
Considered by coaches to be the middle-school equivalent of the Wyoming Track Classic, the Best of the Best brings together the top athletes from schools around the state to Lander in early May. Each athlete had to meet a qualifying standard in each event — something new this year.
“The minimum standards were really tough,” Meeker said. “It probably took the numbers down by at least half of what normally gets to go to Best of the Best. It really, truly was the Best of the Best.”
This year’s meet featured athletes from 32 different schools, with 50 tracksters representing Powell.
Lady Cub Kami Jensen tied the seventh-grade school record in the pole vault with a height of 7 feet, 6 inches, good enough for second place in the event. The eighth-grade girls 4x400 relay team of Kabrie Cannon, Ashlyn Shorb, Abi Urbach and Jenna Hillman posted a time of 4:26.33, breaking the previous school record of 4:29 (set in 1999) by almost three seconds.
“The girls’ record, I had just decided not to even have the team think about it, it was just too fast,” Meeker said. “But then this team ran really well at conference, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really fast.’ I looked up the record and we were only three seconds off. I told the girls, ‘Three seconds off on the 4x400? We can do this.’”
The Cubs’ eighth grade 4x400 relay team broke a school record of their own, with the team of Reed Smith, Keaton Rowton, Jace Bohlman and Cole Frank posting a time of 3:49.87. Their time shattered the previous record of 3:54 by over four seconds.
“Both of those records have been around for a long time,” Meeker said. “Both groups went out there and just laid it all out on the track. Literally each one of them had nothing left at the end. We were really pretty tickled; it was great.”
Lady Cubs
For the seventh-grade girls, Jensen claimed the top spot in the 100 and 200 meter hurdles, while Sydney Spomer finished first in the triple jump. Thrower Jamalee Hernandez took gold in the shot put with a toss of 27 feet, 11 inches, while teammate Grace Coombs took second in the discus with a throw of 78 feet, 4.5 inches.
The eighth-grade girls were led by a memorable performance from Hillman, who won the 100, 200 and 400 meter dash, the latter a PR with a time of 1:01.02. To give Hillman’s times a bit of context, her 13.12 in the 100 meter dash would have won her a 3A state title at last weekend’s Wyoming State Track Meet, and was good enough for silver in the other three conferences.
“She’s an amazing runner,” Meeker said of Hillman. “The thing about her is, a lot of times, she’s running out there by herself; she’s just running against the clock. When we went to Sheridan, she had some really good competition, and that really drove some of those really good times. She’s a hard worker and an extremely coachable kid.”
The eighth-grade girls’ relay teams recorded a pair of second-place finishes in the 4x200 (Kameron French, Madi Harvey, Emerson Wormald, Delainey Rayment 2:00.16 PR) and 4x400, breaking the school record in the latter.
Regan Thompson finished first in the shot put with a toss of 29 feet, 7 inches, to go along with 22nd place in the discus.
Cubs
On the boys’ side, the seventh-grade Cubs got a big day from Sammy Adame, who finished first in the 200 meter dash with a personal-best time of 25.27 and took silver in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.52.
Simon Shoopman notched a pair of sixth-place finishes in the 100 and 200 meter hurdles, setting personal bests in both, while fellow seventh-grader Daniel Merritt set personal bests in the 800 and 1600 meter runs, finishing fourth and third, respectively.
Bryan Benner finished second in the shot put with a toss of 34 feet, 9.5 inches, and fourth in the discus, with a personal best of 95 feet, 1 inch.
For the eighth-grade Cubs, Smith took gold in the 200 meter dash with a time of 24.68, then followed that up with another gold in the 200 meter hurdles; he also finished runner-up in the pole vault with a PR height of 10 feet. Teammate Cole Frank took the top spot in the 400 meter dash with a personal best of 54.12.
Bohlman ran a mixture of sprints and distance, taking seventh in the 400 meter dash, sixth in the 800 run and third in the 1600 meters. All three times were personal bests.
Sheldon Shoopman earned a silver in the shot put with a distance of 44 feet, 8 inches, and finished fifth in the discus, with a throw of 116 feet, 1 inch.
“We just had kids all across the board just really embrace the idea [of giving their best],” Meeker said.
Asked how the coaching staff kept the kids motivated and focused for such a quick turnaround between the conference and Best of the Best meets, Meeker said it was simple.
“We told them that we were going to buy their dinner,” she said, laughing. “It’s as simple, really, as that. They’re just so excited that the school’s going to buy something for them. But that last week of the season, the kids are always ready to go, ready to move on to the next thing. They were gung-ho and they bought in.”
400 Meter Dash
8. Anna Bartholomew 1:07.15 PR, 14. Megan Jacobsen 1:09.49 PR,
800 Meter Run
11. Gabby Paterson 2:44.0 PR, 13. Megan Jacobsen 2:45.21 PR
1600 Meter Run
10. Anna Bartholomew 6:06.81
100 Meter Hurdles
1. Kami Jensen 17.40 PR, 14. Gretel Opps 19.34, 24. Mikayla Graham 20.09 PR
200 Meter Hurdles:
1. Kami Jensen 32.06, 16. Mikayla Graham 36.87
4x100 Relay
14. Abby Wambeke, Mikayla Graham, McKenna Alley, Sydney Spomer 59.92 PR
4x200 Relay
2. Sydney Spomer, Mikayla Graham, Gretel Opps, Kami Jensen 2:03.43
4x400 Relay
2. Megan Jacobson, Grace Coombs, Abby Wambeke, Anna Bartholomew 4:36.31 PR
High Jump
3. (tie) Kami Jensen 4’4”
Pole Vault
2. Kami Jensen 7’6” PR *Tied school record, set in 2016 by Emma Karhu
Triple Jump
1. Sydney Spomer 29’7.75” PR, 9. Gretel Opps 27’.25” PR, 15. Alexis Terry 26’7.5” PR, 19. Anna Bartholomew 26’2”
Shot Put
1. Jamalee Hernandez 27’11”, 2. Grace Coombs 26’2.5”, 14. McKenna Alley 23’7” PR, 15. Shelby Fagan 23’5.5” PR
Discus
2. Grace Coombs 78’4.5”, 4. Jamalee Hernandez 74’4” PR
100 Meter Dash
1. Jenna Hillman 13.12
200 Meter Dash
1. Jenna Hillman 27.18
400 Meter Dash
1. Jenna Hillman 1:01.02 PR
800 Meter Run
7. Kabrie Cannon 2:42.15 PR
1600 Meter Run
3. Kabrie Cannon 6:03.84 PR
100 Meter Hurdles
5. Abi Urbach 17.43 PR, 20. Kameron French 18.63 (tie) PR
200 Meter Hurdles
7. Abi Urbach 32.62 PR, 16. Kameron French 34.22 PR
4x100 Relay
12. Delainey Rayment, Kameron French, Abi Urbach, Ashlyn Shorb 58:52
4x200 Relay
