By Alex Kuhn
Sports Editor
Worland track looks to keep it rolling
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WORLAND - Last Thursday's Riverton Twilight track and field meet turned out to be Worland's best performance of the season. The Warriors and Lady Warriors had top-eight placers in nearly every event and added more automatic state qualifiers to their list.
"We had 66 top-eight placers. That's amazing and tremendous. We had 35 PRs [personal records] and three more kids automatically qualify. The kids performed really well and I keep telling them everything we're doing right now is getting us ready for regionals. The excitement of placing in the top-eight and scoring points for the team is what I tell them to strive for on a weekly basis," said WHS track and field coach Tracey Wiley.
Automatically qualifying for Worland at the Twilight meet were, junior Alexa Caballero in the discus, Porter Harman in the 3,200-meter and McKenna Mickelson in the triple jump.
The top point getters for Worland in Riverton were Jaden Mickelson at 34, McKenna Mickelson with 22.25 and Luke Mortimer with 20.5
On Mondays before the start of practice in front of the whole team, Wiley likes to recognize the Warrior and Lady Warrior athletes who notched achievements during the previous week's meet(s).
This Monday was particularly busy with many Worland athletes setting new personal records, automatically qualifying for state and placing in the top eight.
"We met in the gym because of the weather and we talked about the meet and regionals. I also let them know we're going to be placing kids where we need them in order to compete for regionals in these next two meets. And I completely spaced talking about the PRs and when they got back from running their laps they sure let me know. So we took about 20 minutes recognizing them. That's a cool thing because during track meets everyone is in 10 different directions.
"Josie Rose ran the 400 and had a PR of eight seconds. Kylie Fronk is a freshman and had a PR of nine feet in the discus. Oshea Downing, a freshman, set PRs in the shot and discus. These kids are figuring it out and getting better and better with each week," said Wiley.
The 3A East regional meet in Douglas on May 11-12 is two weeks out, and for these final weeks, Wiley and her coaching staff will place their athletes in events that best maximize the team's point potential.
Each week Wiley post the team's rankings and where each athlete ranks in their respective events, and with the postseason just around the corner this portion of the season is about finishing.
"I think [distance] coach [Tammy] Montoya is the one that has to strategize the most with the distance kids. It's tough because they can't run a 400, 800, a mile and two-mile. So you try to place those kids by looking at MileSplit and see where they can score points for us at regionals.
"And we have kept telling them that they're ranked on MileSplit but you have to turn it over and go finish at regionals and state where it counts," said Wiley.
The Wyoming Classic is Friday at Kelly Walsh High School and two Warriors will compete in the meet that pits the best of the best of Wyoming, from all classes, against one another.
Porter Harman made the Classic in both the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs but chose to run in just the 1,600. Maclin Wiley will represent Worland in the discus and sits sixth out of 10.
"At that level of competition and to do well, I encouraged Porter to pick the mile or two-mile. He's about five seconds behind the first place guy. Maclin is sixth and is only six feet behind the first place guy. Both kids will compete and it's an honor to take some athletes to the Classic.
"I'm excited for him [Maclin] and we all know he can throw 146-plus and does it in practice, but that doesn't count. The people who throw the discus make it look easy, so sometimes it's like 'It's only six more feet,' but that's huge when you start turning and spinning, head up and all the other many things they have to do," said Wiley.
One meet is on the schedule this week for the Warriors and Lady Warriors. Thursday the team travels to Powell for a 3 p.m. meet to compete against Powell, Cody and Lovell.
"We'll go to Powell and hopefully we get some more automatic qualifiers," said Wiley.
Top-eight results from the Riverton Twilight are as follows.
GIRLS
100-meter
8, McKenna Mickelson, 14.02.
800-meter
6, Tatum Zimmerman, 2:53.53.
8, Lily Lungren, 3:00.08.
100-meter Hurdles
8, Isabella Kunz
300-meter Hurdles
7, Isabella Kunz, 1:02.25.
4x100-meter Relay
4, Worland (Darla Hernandez, Isabella Kunz, McKenna Mickelson, Julie Seidel), 58.81.
1600 Sprint Medley Relay
5, Worland (Julie Seidel, Denali Jones, Tatum Zimmerman, Lily Lungren), 5:01.40.
High Jump
3, Denali Jones, 4-6.
4, Darla Hernandez, 4-4.
Long Jump
2, McKenna Mickelson, 15-6.5.
8, Tatum Zimmerman, 12-8.5.
Triple Jump
1, McKenna Mickelson, 33-5.50.
8, Julie Seidel, 29-0.
Discus
1, Alexa Caballero, 110-4.
5, Saige Jones, 87-3.
6, Ajiah Montoya, 85-8.5.
Shot Put
2, Alex Caballero, 33-1.
3, Saige Jones, 31-9.
BOYS
100-meter
6, Chris Nicholas, 12.06.
7, Hayden Lambeth, 12.13.
200-meter
6, Hayden Lambeth, 25.23.
7, Chris Nicholas, 25.40.
8, Kevin Abercrombie, 25.71.
400-meter
3, Gabe Webster, 54.79.
6, Dalton Jeffries, 56.26.
8, Victor Olvera, 57.75.
800-meter
4, Charles Rishel, 2:11.80.
1600-meter
8, Braydon Bond, 5:25.50.
3200-meter
1, Porter Harman, 10:09.78.
110-meter Hurdles
2, Jaden Mickelson, 17.22.
4, Donavin Koch, 18.56.
5, Luke Mortimer, 18.83.
300-meter Hurdles
3, Jaden Mickelson, 43-75.
5, Luke Mortimer, 44.68.
4x100-meter Relay
1, Worland (Hayden Lambeth, Luke Mortimer, Chris Nicholas, Victor Olvera), 46.86.
4x400-meter Relay
3, Worland (Dalton Jeffries, Jacob Newell, Charles Rishel, Gabe Webster), 3:46.62.
1600 Sprint Medley Relay
3, Worland (Porter Harman, Joseph Keller, Marcus Wiley, Colton Woffinden), 3:48.97.
High Jump
1, Luke Mortimer, 6-0.
3, Andy Deniz, 5-6.
6, Cole Harman, 5-4.
Long Jump
1, Jaden Mickelson, 19-2.75.
7, Domanic Hartley, 17-5.
8, Tommy Eckert, 17-1.
Triple Jump
1, Jaden Mickelson, 40-11.
3, Donavin Koch, 36-10.
6, Colton Woffinden, 35-11.
7, Jacob Newell, 33-5.
Pole Vault
3, Josh Garza, 12-6.
Discus
2, Maclin Wiley, 124-10.
3, Morgan Tigner, 116-2.25.
Shot Put
1, Morgan Tigner, 41-4.75.
4, Maclin Wiley, 38-5.
6, Hayden Lambeth, 38-3.
