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Saturday, 1 p.m -- Before getting to the track news, I need to correct some soccer news. The information sent to the media from the tournament site yesterday was in error. Soccer season did NOT end for Powell's boys as they were, in fact, 3-2 winners over Worland on Friday. Furthermore, the Panthers rolled over Torrington today by a 6-2 final count to finish the year as your 2011 3A boys' consolation winners. Good job Panther soccer!
Now on to track, where a big development has taken place in the race for the 3A boys' title. Powell holds a 21-point lead over Douglas at the moment with four events remaining (the 200, 400, 1600 and the 4x400 relay), but a usurper -- the Cody Broncs -- currently sit in second place, a mere 12.5 points in back of Powell.
The shift occurred in the 300-meter hurdles, where Douglas had two runners in the finals. One false-started while the other wasa disqualified on the final hurdle. The disaster likely cost the Bearcats a shot at the title today. Cody, on the other hand, pulled in big points in the pole vault to rise in the standings past Douglas. It will be interesting to see if the Broncs can hang on over the final events of the day.
Individually, Kyle Sullivan not only won both hurdle races, but turned in the lowest time in all classes to earn the Best-of-the-best award. His 110-meter hurdle time also bumped Justin Cross from the state record books as he set a new 3A class record of 14.35 seconds. Sullivan had to settle for runner-up honors in the high jump though as Lander's Tanner Simpson denied the Powell senior a three-peat, winning with a leap of 6-6 after Sullivan opted to pass out of that height and then failed to convert a jump at 6-8.
The rains have held off, but the wind is really starting to gust here in Casper. Hopefully the bad elements can hold off for four more events and a trophy presentation.
Saturday, 7:40 a.m. -- We've arrived at championship Saturday here at the state track and field championships in Casper. The rain came in waves overnight as I was awakened on at least two occasions by the patter of wind-driven droplets against the nearby window. Nothing is falling as I type, but a glance at radar indicates that could be a temporary thing with much precipitation to both the north and west of here.
To my readers following along here, I may or may not be able to break away and update today given my need to camp out on photographer row for most of today. You can follow the results as the automatic times become official
here. Have those fire trucks and a victory parade on standby back in the BIg Horn Basin tonight.
There's not much more to say. About nine hours from now, a new state champion will be crowned. Go Panthers!
Friday, 9:30 p.m. -- Here are your team scores going into Saturday's finals. On the boys' side, Powell carries an 11-point lead in the standings with 58 points to Douglas' 47. Jackson (45) and Cody (44) are both holding close, but are expected to fade as Saturday progresses.
Using preliminary times and regional heights and distances, Powell projects to an eight-point victory at the end of the day tomorrow. That's hardly a comfortable spread as one stumble or off performance can quickly see that evaporate.
There are a number of events where Powell and Douglas have multiple participants tomorrow — pretty much every race at 400 meters or below sees the two schools in direct competition. The wildcard event on Saturday though could be the boys' high jump, where a number of participants enter having recorded a height of 5-8 in regional competition. Two of those are from Douglas. One of those (Cole Good) is from Powell. The way things break down, individuals from that group will likely take up four or five of the top eight positions in the high jump standings tomorrow. Just like the girls' pole vault today, the number of misses at lower heights could be the difference between scoring team points and not scoring team points. As you assess the Powell-Douglas title race, this is the event that projects to sway some key points one direction or another.
On the girls' side, Cody has things well in hand with 101.5 points. Glenrock (38), Powell (34) and Wheatland (33) will battle for the final two team awards in a race that's simply too close to call at this stage. As low as those scores are, don't overlook the chance that a school not currently in the top four could mount a final day surge and factor into the mix as well. This is literally anyone's race for second place.
One final observation -- the rains have been steadily falling since about 4 p.m. and the forecast for tomorrow has bumped up the chance for rain from 40 to 60 percent. That could effect the two remaining boys' field events (pole vault and high jump) and obviously throws another question mark into how athletes respond on the track.
At NCAA regional golf action, Cody's Gabe Maier played 24 holes today, finishing up the last six holes on his 1-over first round and adding a second round score of 68, 4-under-par. Maier currently sits in a tie for 11th place in the NCAA regional standings and, based on current team scores, is two strokes off the needed pace to qualify for the NCAA championship tournament. The University of Wyoming senior has one more round to play in Erie, Colo. The top five teams and the lowest scoring individual not affiliated with one of those five schools earn the right to advance.
Friday, 6:10 p.m. -- Powell now has its second state champion of these games. The boys' 4x100 relay team of Marco Borja, Colby Gilmore, Josh Cragoe and Jakob Bowers executed a series of flawless handoffs to turn in the only sub-45 second time of the finals and claim the top spot on the medal podium.
This was a pivotal race as Powell and Douglas were expected to be the top teams, and in a race where every point counts the last thing you want to is hand points directly to your primary challenger. Gilmore and Cragoe also turned in two of the three fastest prelim times in the 400 meters tonight, it should be noted.
In other afternoon action, Vince Sleep and Garrett Lynch finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the shot put. It will be fun to watch that pair compete together for two more years in both the shot and the discus.
Not much to report on the girls' side of things. The 4x100 relay placed 7th, which could be noteworthy since the team they relegated to eighth place was Glenrock, which appears to be their principle challenger for the state runner-up hardware. Desiree Murray successfully qualified for Saturday in both the 300-meter hurdles and the 400 meters. A shout out also needs to go out to Kadi Cooley in the girls' pole vault. Cooley wound up in ninth place, but cleared 8-6, which is the same height as the fifth-place finisher. A five-competitor tie at the height was broken based on misses at prior heights and, unfortunately, Cooley came up with the short straw and was the one competitor to finish outside the medal range.
I'm going back to the hotel to dry off and head out to dinner. Look for a late-night posting tonight where I try and assess the prospects of tomorrow's finals. Team scores at the end of Day 2 will also be posted then.
Friday, 2 p.m. -- The skies have gotten darker, but the rain has held off so far. The wind? Well, that's a different matter. This is spring and we are in Casper, after all.
That said, it has been a mixed bag for Powell competitors today. On the good side, Drew MaGill placed second in the boys' triple jump this morning with a leap of more than 43 feet. Magill, along with teammate Marco Borja, also advanced through the 100-meter preliminaries and will run in tomorrow morning's finals.
Also finding his way into the top eight was freshman Hayden Cragoe. Cragoe continued his May sizzle by jumping more than 40 feet in the triple jump to pick up an extra point for the Panthers.
Speaking of points, Justin Lynn grabbed another one in the 800-meter finals. The Panthers, with three runners in the field, had the opportunity to score big, but managed just an 8-9-10 finish.
On the girls' side, the Panthers' only points today have come from Kassey MacDonald, who placed fifth in the girls' 800 finals. Sierra Morrow firmly established herself as a candidate for title of tough-luck kid at these games by again placing ninth. While she's sporting a shiny 4x800 medal from last night, let's hope she can shake off the string of 9's when they run the 1600 meters tomorrow.
The biggest news of the day for the Panther girls, unfortunately, is not good news. The Panthers were shut out of points in an event they figured to score very well in today. Marquette McArthur and Tori Sleep owned two of the top discus throws coming to Casper, but were unable to crack the top eight here in town.
Up at state soccer, the season has ended for both Panther teams. Worland scored a 2-1 victory in girls' action and a 3-2 win in boys' competition to bring down the curtain on Powell's seasons.
We're in a bit of a lull right now. The next action should fire up around 3 p.m. with boys' shot put, the 4x100 relays and the 400-meter prelims among the featured events, at least for Powell followers.
Friday, 9:20 a.m. -- Just a quick note before things heat up too much on the oval. Right now we have mostly cloudy skies, but the sun is peeking through and, most important, there's no new rain falling at this time. Today's events should run on schedule, with the exception of the pole vault -- after being shut out of vaulting competition yesterday, I, like many, really don't know what's going on there yet.
Early action includes Drew MaGill in the triple jump, the boys' and girls 800 meter finals, where again the Panthers could add to their point totals, and closer to the lunch hour, the girls' discus.
Stay tuned. As long as Mother Nature continues to play nice, I'll be able to update throughout the day.
Thursday, 8:15 p.m. -- For the second consecutive year, the Powell Panthers are the state girls' 4x800 relay champions. Had you said that back in February, when three of the four members of the 2010 state title relay were predicted to again carry the baton, it might not have seemed a surprise. But of the four that lined up today in Casper, only Kassey MacDonald was actually on the award podium a year ago. Injuries sidelined Brooke Nisley and Alyssa Rodriguez this track season, paving the way for Desiree Murray, Tally Wells and Sierra Morrow to step up and do a fantastic job in winning a state title and becoming the first sub-10 minute relay in school 4x800 history.
Mother Nature gets the blame in preventing the team from going below 10 minutes again, but considering they ran in a drizzle and 41 degrees, the winning time of just under 10:03 is still mighty impressive. Also impressive was the 17-second margin of victory over runner-up Lander. The Panthers were in front almost the entire race after Murray ran down a fast-starting Douglas team after 250 meters. From there on, the Panthers put the pedal to the metal and pulled away. Running the third leg, Tally Wells transformed a 25-yard lead into a morale-crushing 60+ yard cushion over the final 200 meters of her leg before handing off to MacDonald, who simply continued to stretch that gap.
Naturally, after the tropical conditions they endured all day, the foursome had plans to go to Dairy Queen for celebratory Blizzards tonight.
In other late action from Day 1, the boys' 4x800 relay won a battle down the home stretch to finish as the state runner-up behind Jackson. Freshman Shawnea Harrington uncorked her best throw of the season in the shot put, going 37-6 and winning third-place honors. Drew MaGill placed fourth overall in the long jump and Kendra Ostrom placed eighth in the high jump as the entire field struggled on the wet footing.
In prelim action, Josh Cragoe and Kyle Sullivan each won their heats of the 110-meter hurdles to advance. Murray was also one of the top qualifiers in the 100-meter hurdles. In the 200, MaGill and Colby Gilmore each advanced to a final race that will include three Douglas runners.
After four of 17 events, the standings show Cody already atop the girls' division with 42 points. Powell is a comfortable second with 28 points. Wheatland and Glenrock share third place at 16 points apiece. On the boys' side, Powell heads to the hotel with 33 points, four ahead of Jackson. Cody makes it an all-northwest Wyoming affair with 23 points in third place. Douglas currently sits in fifth place at 13 points.
Casper wasn't the only place the weather was creating fits today. In Colorado, University of Wyoming senior and Cody native Gabe Maier was unable to complete his full 18 holes in the opening round of NCAA regional golf play. Maier was called off the course after 12 holes. He's currently 1-over-par and in a tie for 35th. Tournament officials hope to resume the opening round at 8 a.m., Friday.
Both Powell soccer teams came out on the wrong side of 8-0 decisions against Buffalo today, dropping the teams into the elimination bracket tomorrow. Both will play Worland for the right to advance to Saturday's consolation final match.
As for me, I'll be taking a very long hot shower tonight and doing my "please don't rain" dance in preparation for Day 2 of state track. Due to the weather conditions, which aren't supposed to improve a whole bunch overnight, the next update might not come until Friday evening.
Thursday, 4:15 p.m. -- Welcome to the Wyoming state track and field championships where it was 35 degrees and snowing at the start of competition this morning. I'm starting to feel more and more spoiled by those 75-80 degree days that greeted me to Wyoming state track two years ago with each return visit to Casper.
Despite a persistent rain/snow mix, they have gotten a few events off on schedule. The Panthers wasted little time getting off to a good start on both the boys' and girls' side of things. Tally Wells and Tess Mitchell broke the 13-minute barrier and finished 3-4 in the day's first race, the 3200. Sierra Morrow was edged on a photo finish at the line to narrowly miss out adding an eighth place finish.
Not to be outdone, Bodie Friday, Danny McKearney and Zander Andreasen finished 6-7-8 in the boys' 3200-meter race to get the power of Powell's multiple entries started. Remember, head coach Scott Smith called his team's performance in the distance races one of the keys to winning this weekend's expected head-to-head showdown with Douglas.
The weather has played havoc with the field event schedule. All pole vault competition has been cancelled for the day and everything else is 2+ hours behind schedule. There's a small moat around the inside of the stadium track and the only thing apparently taking the weather in stride is the snowman someone positioned in front of the grandstands. Substitute a pair of track shorts for the corn cob pipe and the button nose and it would pretty much sum up this first day of competition.
One field event that did get in the books today was the boys' discus. Senior Jacob Beuster missed out on his quest for a state title, but did place second. Freshman Garrett Lynch was ninth going into his final throw and then uncorked a beauty to leapfrog his way clear up to fifth in the standings. Sophomore Vince Sleep had some drama of his own, scratching his first two throws before advancing to finals with his last regulation toss. Sleep finished seventh overall to give Powell another three-medalist event.
The Panthers now have 20 points in the books while Douglas has yet to crack the scoring column. That's sure to change over the next 15 events, but for right now it's the Panther boys in front in Casper with the 4x800 relay finals coming up in an hour or so. That's another event where both the Powell girls and boys are expected to pull in some big numbers.
Stay tuned and I'll try to make sense of the revised field events schedule for everyone, although if it doesn't stop raining they'll have to print a revised revised schedule before the day is done.