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WORLAND - The Worland High School track and field team added more names to their automatic qualifier list for the 3A state meet last Saturday in Riverton. And today they are hoping to add even more as they return to Riverton for the Wolverine Twilight meet.

Last weekend in Riverton the Warriors placed fourth out of 16 teams, which is quite impressive when you consider they weren't at full strength.

"Because of prom, we took 22 boys and eight girls, but there was a load of good competition there from 4A to 1A, and I was real proud of everyone. Overall, you look at the results, we had a lot of kids in the top eight and the few girls I had competed very well," said WHS track and field coach Tracey Wiley.

Worland had three athletes automatically qualify for the state meet in Casper, which is May 17-19, junior Porter Harman in the 1,600-meter run, Jaden Mickelson in the triple jump and Luke Mortimer in the high jump.

"He and the Cody kid are lots of fun to watch and Porter was right on his heels. They'll be competing from here on out," said Wiley about Harman.

Other noteworthy performances from Riverton included Mortimer scoring 17.25 points and Mickelson scoring 17. For the Lady Warriors, freshman McKenna Mickelson led the way with eight points.

Lady Warrior Taylor Lind had a massive personal record in the discus, throwing a 63-10 which was nearly 20 better than her throw in Worland last Thursday.

"Taylor Lind, even though she didn't place, had a huge, huge PR in the discus. Every Monday I talk about who placed and who AQ'd and the kids that PR'd. I mentioned her this week because even though she didn't place she had a PR of almost 20 feet. She's a quiet kid and to have that big of a PR is tremendous for our team and for her," Wiley said.

Saturday's meet reinforced much of what Wiley and her coaching staff have been telling their athletes all season long, that being they can compete with anyone.

"I believe in them, their coaches believe in them and they can compete with anyone. It shows every time we go to a meet, they can compete with the best of them. We're sitting very good right now, I told them that three weeks from now is regionals and their eyes got real big. We're pushing them and running repeats because regionals and state are what we're working for," said Wiley.

The 3A East regional meet in Douglas is only a shockingly three weeks away, and the Worland athletes have been doing all they can to climb up the rankings in their respective events.

Each week Wiley posts the rankings of each event for her athletes to see where they stack up against the conference competition as they fight for a spot at the state meet. For example, the Lady Warriors have four throwers, in discus or shot, in the top eight, Alexa Caballero, Chassidi Garay, Saige Jones and Ajiah Montoya. If that were to hold for regionals, all four would punch their ticket to state, as the top-eight at regionals qualify for the final meet of the season.

"No pressure on [discus and shot put] coach [Ed] Wise, but he has four girls in the top eight in the 3A East in the shot and discus," Wiley said.

She added, "We don't get to see many of the teams on the East but with these rankings, they can get a visual on where they sit and what they need to do to make it to state. And watching in practice you can see the determination of each kid and it makes us coaches very proud."

While regionals and state are the ultimate goals this season, the Wyoming Classic is also within sight for a few Warriors and Lady Warriors. The Wyoming Classic is the annual meet held in Casper where depending on the event, the top-eight or top-10 athletes, regardless of class, battle it out for bragging rights.

As of this writing, Worland has Harman (1,600 and 3,200), Maclin Wiley (discus) and Josh Garza (pole vault) in position to make the meet. While Caballero (discus), Hayden Lambeth (shot put), McKenna Mickelson (triple jump), Kylah Mills (long jump), Mortimer(300-meter hurdles, high jump) and Charles Rishel (800-meter) are all knocking on the door.

Today's Riverton Twilight is the only meet of the week for Worland and will more than likely be the final shot for making the Classic for the Worland athletes who are on the edge of making the Classic. Douglas was originally on the schedule for this weekend, but weather, surprise, surprise, spoiled those plans.

"I told them that if they can perform to their best ability and get some PRs, we will not have practice on Friday. They, of course, were very excited about that but really I don't even have to bribe these kids, they're always pushing themselves. At every meet they'll find me and tell me they got a PR, that's what's cool about this. Track in a sense is competing against yourself and trying to better yourself.

"From the seniors to the freshmen, they're all working hard. The old saying, Saige Jones, it's a great day to be a Warrior," said Wiley.