Indoor track succeeds at state meet in Gillette

This past weekend the Wolves traveled north to compete in the State Indoor Track Championships in Gillette.

The boys were led by senior sprinter and long jumper Kalen Kester and senior distance runner Braden Reichl. Both broke personal records in their specialties.

Kester came into the meet with a state-qualifying time of 6.74 seconds in the 55-meter sprint and immediately improved that time in the preliminaries, finishing second at 6.70. Improving his time with a personal best of 6.66, Kester finished third in the finals.

Kester also had an outstanding leap in the long jump, setting a new personal best of 21’ 8.75.” His distance was three-fourths of an inch behind the winning state mark set by the top two finishers.

Reichl delivered in the 1,600-meter run with an excellent time of 4:29:71, improving his season best by more than 4 seconds with another personal best and running just 4.5 seconds off the state champions time in the mile-long race. Braden then came back in the 3,200 meters this time improving his season best by almost 8 seconds breaking the 10 minute barrier in 9:58.93.

Also competing for the Wolves at state, junior Kyle Cacho finished ahead of more than half the 64 sprinters, finishing 27th in the 200-meter dash. Junior Alex Davis ran well in the 400-meter run, finishing 31st in the field of 53. In the 800-meter run junior Christain Gayton finished 36th while Davis took 46th.

In the distance runs, junior Brayden Kovick improved his season’s best by almost 3 seconds to finish 11th, while sophomore Marcos Valerio finished 33rd. Kovick also finished near the top in the 3,200 with a 13th-place finish, followed by juniors Colton Minard in 20th and Gayton in 23rd place.

In the field events Kester was followed by Cacho in 15th place, just half an inch of his season best with a jump of 19’11.5.” Junior Trey McGhee improved his season best by 2 feet to 18’7.50 for 24th place. Cacho also finished 15th in the triple jump while throwers Placido Mena and Trey Mcghee got valuable experience competing in the shot put.

The Lady Wolves were led by junior Lauren Hoyt, who set a new school record in the long jump with a leap of 15’10” to finish 11th. She also improved her personal record in the 55-meter dash, finishing 27th out of 57 sprinters and also leading the Lady Wolves’ sprinters in the 200 meters improving her season’s best by almost 2 seconds. Also achieving their season best in the sprints, were freshman Dezeray Wilson in 44th and freshman Heather Gibson 52nd in the 55 meters. In the 200 meters, Wilson ended in 46th, Jimena Campos 48th and Gibson 53rd. Kezley Moore took 16th in the 400-meter run.

Moore also came back to improve her season best by almost 4 seconds, finishing 15th in the 800 meters in 2:29.63.

Sophomore Kaisa Arnell achieved two personal bests in the 1,600 and 3,200 runs.

She finished 15th and improved her time by almost 14 seconds to 5:47.48 in the 1,600-meter run for a new school record. Arnell then came back and improved her season best by just over 10 seconds in the 3,200-meter run at a time of 12:17.41 for a 10th-place finish in the field of 30 runners.

In the 55-meter hurdles, senior Eliza Morin ran a personal record of 10.21 for 18th place, while Jimena Campos also ran a personal record of 11.34 to finish 29th. Morin also finished 8th in the high jump.

Finally for the Lady Wolves, junior Natasha Young equaled her season best of 35’11” to finish in 8th place in the shot put.

All in all, coach Dan Hansen was pleased that many of the competitors recorded their seasons best. Hansen is excited about making the transition to the outdoor season as well.

“After the first day of outdoor, we have about 90 kids signed up. Good numbers, and we just need them to work as a team,” he said.

 

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