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WORLAND - Since weather canceled last week's meet in Buffalo the Worland High School track team is ready to go for Saturday's meet in Powell, after the extended layoff.

"We had practice but it was crazy because we were in shorts and T-shirts and were wishing we could have hosted it. Looking over at the mountain it was black and knowing that just on the other side Buffalo had gotten eight inches of snow," said WHS track coach Tracey Wiley. "We did have a good workout and I gave them Friday off to let them get an early start on their spring break."

Practices for Worland track will resume today as they return from spring break. Saturday the Warriors and Lady Warriors will be closer to full strength, as the various early spring activities and trips are winding down.

Each meet this season Wiley has taken more and more of her full roster of 67 athletes.

"Some kids will be gone because they're on family vacations, which I understand and am fine with. We'll get the D.C. kids back and ready to go. We won't have too many gone but we'll take whoever is able to go to Powell," she said.

Conditioning will continue to be a focus for Worland not only in practice but in the meets themselves. At this point in the season, Wiley and her staff are looking to better balance their team, as they have log jams for some events.

"We're also going to start asking some kids to give other events a try. Right now I have 15 boys in the 100 and only a few in the 400. So we'll ask a few to see if they will give a go to some of our other events that aren't as full. We can't take 15 100-meter boys to regionals, so it will be about helping out the team and try to fill as many events as we can.

"You have to be careful though because Porter Harman wants to sign-up for all the long distance races. In Buffalo, he wanted to run the mile, two-mile, the sprint medley and the 4x800. [Distance coach] Coach [Tammy] Montoya said I should have him drop out of one, so I texted Porter. But he wanted to run all of them for his conditioning because he missed out on a week of conditioning. If a kid wants to do that for conditioning purposes, go for it. I texted coach Montoya that and she replied back 'He is an animal,'" said Wiley.

Shifting athletes around to different events won't be a hard sell for Wiley. Each of her athletes is willing to do what's best for the team and what will better position them for a run at some hardware come time for the 3A East regional meet in Douglas on May 11-12 and 3A State meet in Casper, May 17-19.

Athletes like Tommy Eckert who initially did not want to run in the 200-meter but when asked by Wiley did so. And as it turned out, Eckert has taken a liking to the event.

"They'll do anything we ask, a few of them I'll tease about running the 3,200. But, absolutely, they'll do anything we ask. Tommy Eckert didn't want to run the 200 in the first meet and I made him run it and now he looks great and he's really liking that race. Chris Nicholas has gotten stronger this year and he's going to be one of my main sprinters," said Wiley.

While the track and field season is only four weeks old, the half-way point is quickly approaching. Around this time in the season rankings for each event and relay take shape, this is when Wiley will post those rankings for her athletes to see and, hopefully, use as a motivational tool.

"I know it's early, but a lot of these events we're sitting pretty good. Around this time of the season, I'll start posting where they sit in the conference and state. We're looking at getting as many as we can in the top eight or top 10, that way they can see what they need to do to move up the list," said Wiley.