The Sports Guy is off and running to Casper and this is where to look to find the latest updates on what's happening at Harry Geldien Stadium.
If everything goes according to plan, this thread will be updated routinely throughout the day
(Editor's note:with the most recent updates at the top). And if Murphy's Law happens to kick in, then we'll update it each night at the conclusion of the day's events.
IT IS OVER!!
Why were there no updates on Saturday, you ask, faithful reader? That would be because 1. it was raining...again...and 2. for most of the day I could barely feel my fingers, much less type with them.
Mother Nature teased the track for about an hour with sunlight before the rains moved in. Once the rain stopped, the wind picked up to the promised 30 mph and the temperature plummeted to 42-48 degrees, wind chill not included. For those, like me, who had foolishly removed most winter-weather clothing from the packing list, it made for a very, very long day.
As many of you have probably heard, the Powell boys finished as the 2010 state runner-up. Jackson's dominance in the longer distances was simply too much to overcome this time around. The Panthers did run down Douglas in the 4x400 relay to make a last-event move up from third place and provide Powell with its second state champion relay team in Casper.
Powell's girls placed sixth overall with 46 points. Cody came from behind in the 4x400 relay to successfully defend their 3A girls' state title while Jackson claimed runner-up honors.
On the soccer pitch at Sheridan, the Panthers dropped a 1-0 decision in the boys' consolation game vs. Lander to return home 1-2 for the season's final weekend.
At the NCAA West regional golf tournament, Cody's Gabe Maier followed up his first day with rounds of 72 and 71 to finish the event tied for 24th overall. If I'm reading the NCAA qualifying procedure correctly, this would mean Maier failed to advance as some of the other individual qualifiers finished ahead of him in the final standings, but I'll wait for word from the folks down at UW before making a final declaration. Either way, Maier has nothing to hang his head over.
As always, check out Tuesday's issue of the Powell Tribune for the wrap up of soccer, track and a little Pioneers' American Legion baseball as well. We've got a busy Memorial Day weekend coming up with more baseball, a fundraiser 5K run and a Baja-style off-road race, just to name a little of the excitement on the horizon!
10:45 p.m., Friday:
The rains have continued, but I've been sitting here with pen and paper indoors and looking at the heat sheets for tomorrow's events. All I can say is buckle up, because this is going to be close on the boys' side.
Jackson's sweep of the top four positions in today's 800 meters gave the Broncs the inside track for tomorrow's title presentation, but both Douglas and Powell will have plenty to say about things.
Two events will go a long way toward determining the outcome of the title chase. The first is the 1600 meters. If Jackson can replicate a sweep of the top spots, it is going to be very, very hard for anyone to catch up to the Broncs on Saturday. The other event will be tomorrow morning's shot put, where Powell has three participants and Douglas has the top thrower from the regional events. If the Panthers can steal a few extra points early, it could pay huge dividends tomorrow afternoon.
Keep this in mind, Panther head coach Scott Smith has said that if his team is within two points going into the final event of the day, he likes his chances. There's good reason for that, the Panthers are a considerable favorite to walk away with individual gold in the 4x400 relay.
On the girls' side, things are already close...for third place. Cody and Jackson are well in front of the field and it will be hard for anyone to catch either school on Saturday. But there are nine teams within nine points of each other fighting for third-place honors, and the Powell Panthers are currently just one point in back of Mountain View in the race for that last trophy space.
The Panthers will need an almost-flawless Saturday to pass Mountain View and hold off teams that have more slots in finals races, but it should be a heck of a chase.
The weather forecast for tomorrow has dropped mention of rain, but is speaking of 25-30 mph winds, which could make for some brutal conditions for all competitors on the track.
5:15 p.m., Friday:
It rained for the majority of the day, so my apologies to those who looked in hoping to get an update today. I tried to send one out, but apparently it didn't make it. So let's try to catch you up on the action.
For starters, the Panthers picked up their second state champion as Kyle Sullivan successfully defended his high jump title, clearing 6'4" to claim victory. Much like last season, Sullivan put the pressure on his opponents by clearing 6'4" on his first attempt and then sat back through one delay and six misses to win gold for a second consecutive year.
The Panthers narrowly missed a sweep of the high jump events. Kendra Ostrom finished as the state runner-up in the event this morning in an event that was impacted greatly by morning rains.
And the rains have probably been the biggest story of the day. They began right after the national anthem and continued off and on for nearly two hours. Footing in the girls' long jump was affected. The 3A boys' discus was temporarily delayed and several competitors visibly slipped on their spins. But Andrew Young and Jacob Beuster managed to come through in fifth and seventh place, respectively. Ostrom and Hannah Pollart survived the wet high jump to place in the top eight. Desiree Murray and Zach Thiel both placed in the top eight after running the 800 in a strong rain.
And, yes, Jackson repeated its 1-2-3-4 finish on the boys' side to move into first place in the team standings.
Both Panther teams sit in fourth place going into the final day. As soon as yours truly dries off, I'll try to crunch the numbers and provide some insight on how things shape up heading into the final day.
In Sheridan, Powell's girls were eliminated by a 4-0 shutout at the hands of Newcastle. The Panther boys returned the favor, however, winning by the same 4-0 count over Newcastle's boys. Powell will face Lander in the consolation final tomorrow.
8 a.m., Friday:
We had rains move through overnight. Today's action will take place under mostly cloudy skies with a forecast high of 65 degrees. A front is expected to move through and create an east wind (opposite of yesterday) at 15-20 mph. If its the same person that set yesterday's wind forecast, that means we're more likely to get 20-25 mph. It will impact pretty much all events. There's also a slight chance for more rain this afternoon.
In any case, I hope they remembered to turn off the overnight sprinklers on the track infield this year. Otherwise, we could have a repeat of the multi-hour delays for some field events, including 3A high jump.
Correcting one item from yesterday, the finals for the 200 meters do NOT take place today. Evidently, The Sports Guy was still stuck in Kansas mode and temporarily forgot that, here in Wyoming, the state track meet is a three-day affair (thank goodness...you don't want to know how hectic trying to pack all this stuff into two days gets, faithful reader).
8 p.m., Thursday:
Okay, I confess...it was significant. It just wasn't enough to get me sprinting out of the stadium to re-claim the laptop from my car, which was fortunate to simply be parked in the same area code as Harry Geldien Stadium.
Powell, you have your first state champion of the 2010 state track and field meet.
After a rough day on the girls' side of the ledger, the foursome of Skye Albert, Kassey MacDonald, Alyssa Rodriguez and Brooke Nisley erased much of that pain by concluding Day 1 with a thrilling win in the 3A girls' 4x800 relay. The four Panthers clocked in with a time of 10:12 and change to capture the gold by four seconds over Lander while Jackson, the 3A West regional champion faded to third.
Buoyed by that performance, the Panther girls close Day 1 with 12 team points, leaving them just five in back of Jackson and Buffalo, both of whom are tied with for second with 17 points. Someone forgot to send Cody the memo that the 2010 meet was predicted to go down to the wire. The defending 3A state champs tallied 41 points on Thursday and are well in front of the field with five of 17 events scored.
On the boys' side, the Panther 4x800 team placed fifth overall as the 3A West schools ruled the track for the final event of the day. Combined with an earlier fourth-place finish by Matthew Condie in the pole vault, the Panther boys concluded Day 1 with 14 team points, placing them fifth overall going into Friday. Cody carries a three-point lead over Jackson into the overnight, 30-27. Douglas is in third with 17.5 points, followed closely by Glenrock with 17. Four of the meet's 17 events have been scored on the boys' side of the ledger.
All of that will change within the first hour or so of Friday's action as the Panthers face some important events straight out of the gate. For the boys, the trio of Andrew Young, Vince Sleep and Jacob Beuster will be looking to vault Powell up the standings as 3A discus competition opens the morning. On the infield, Kendra Ostrom will be looking to give Powell its second state champion of these games by leading teammates Hannah Pollart and Kami Cooley into the high jump.
Just half an hour later, another potentially pivotal event will take place as the 800-meter race begins the track schedule of events for Day 2. Nisley and MacDonald will look to add to their Thursday medal count while teammate Desiree Murray gets her first taste of action in Casper this year. On the boys' side, Zach Thiel and Justin Lynn hope to prevent a repeat of Jackson's 1-2-3-4 regional finish at the distance in a race that could help position both schools for a Saturday title charge.
Elsewhere in the Park County sporting world, the Powell Panther boys' soccer team dropped a 2-0 decision to Buffalo. The Panthers face an elimination game at 11 a.m. against Newcastle on Friday.
Out in Washington, Mother Nature finally let some golf be played, and University of Wyoming junior and Cody native Gabe Maier may have wished the rain had continued. The lone Cowboy linkster to advance to NCAA West competition carded a five-over 77 and will need to make up eight strokes over the final 36 holes to earn a spot at the NCAA championships.
That wraps things up for Thursday. The Sports Guy will provide a brief morning post to let everyone know what conditions are like in the morning before competition starts. Expect the first event-related post shortly after 10:15 a.m., when we'll hopefully have results from the Panther-packed early morning events.
5 p.m., Thursday:
We're about an hour away from the Panthers' next event, the girls' and boys' 4x800 relays, so it's a great opportunity to kill a few minutes with another blog entry and my first funnel cake of the weekend.
The good news is the Panther girls are now on the team scoreboard. The bad news is that the long jump did not go as well as hoped. Kassey MacDonald was the only member of the Powell contingent to unleash a leap of more than 15 feet and find her way into the top eight. MacDonald placed seventh, maxing out at 15'4". Kendra Ostrom was about three inches off the finals pace with a best leap of 14'11".
Kyle Sullivan and Josh Cragoe took care of business and advanced to Saturday's 110-meter hurdles final. The pair clocked identical 15.49-second times running in different heats to tie for the second-fastest prelim times in the event.
Turning attention elsewhere in Park County athletics, I've received word that the Powell High School girls' soccer team dropped a 6-0 decision to Buffalo in the first round of the 2010 3A state soccer tournament. They'll face Newcastle, a 3-0 loser to Cody, in an elimination game at 9 a.m. tomorrow in Sheridan.
Cody golfer Gabe Maier's attempt to qualify for the NCAA golf tournament is off to a rough start as well. After a 90-minute weather delay in Washington, site of the NCAA West regional meet, only about one-third of the field was able to take the course before play was again stopped. Maier, according to the leader board, has yet to play a hole.
Barring something significant like an alien spacecraft landing next door on the practice fields, the next update will come tonight from the hotel, when I'll present the Day 1 team totals, boys' soccer score and offer a preview of Day 2 here at the state track and field championships.
3:15 p.m., Thursday:
The 3A boys' pole vault and 3A girls' long jump are both in their early stages. The wind continues to howl at about 20 mph, which should make for some incredibly good long jump distances and some incredible headaches for pole vaulters trying to get their steps correct on the runway.
The girls' long jump is one of those make-or-break events for Powell's team trophy chances this weekend. The Panthers have three in the field and would love to have all three finish in the top eight. Cody is out to an early lead on the girls' side with 36 points from just three events.
On the track, they've just finished the prelims of the 200 meters. Alyssa Rodriguez and Colby Gilmore failed to advance -- the latter by one-hundredth of a second. Drew MaGill and Marco Borja will run tomorrow in a finals field that includes three Douglas runners. MaGill posted his fastest time of the year and was second out of the prelims, so he'll have a great lane to start from tomorrow. Borja also had his best time of the year. It is amazing in a race as short as the 200 meters to see a kid drop more than a full second off his season best the way Marco has in the past six days. Truly a great late-season effort.
Expect the next update around 4:30 p.m., by which point the pole vault and long jump should be wrapped up and 110-meter hurdle prelim action should be wrapped up as well.
1:30 p.m., Thursday:
They have begun the proceedings in Casper and the chase of Jackson is officially on. The Broncs were first and fifth in the 3200. Powell, unfortunately, was shut out in both the boys' and girls' races. The Panthers did get on the board in the long jump, where Drew MaGill notched Powell's first points with a fourth-place finish. MaGill's top leap of 21'2.5" was one of his best of the year. Unfortunately, the field was aided by about a 20 mph tail wind and there were lots of personal bests by the field, including a pair of jumpers who surpassed the previous Wyoming 3A record. The winning jump was half an inch shy of 23 feet.
We've just wrapped up the first section of the girls' shot put. Powell will need some help if either of its throwers is to advance to the finals.
Now it's a bit of a break as we wait for the prelim session of the 200 meters at 2:30 p.m.
6:20 a.m., Thursday:
Casper weather forecast for today calls for a high of 71 and a southwest wind of 15 mph, which could be pushing the runners slightly around the final corner and down the home stretch for all track events this afternoon.
A fire destroyed several Treasure Valley Seed buildings late Sunday.
