WHEATLAND – The Wheatland track team was in full force and showed well in the Laura Chord Memorial Track Invite in Newcastle; Field Events at 9 a.m. & Track Events at 9:15 a.m. – Arvada-Clearmont, Glenrock, Hulett, Kaycee, Lusk, Midwest, Moorcroft, Newcastle, Sundance, Thunder Basin, Upton, Wheatland, Wright.
After taking a mandated year off due to the COVID quarantine, the Wheatland High School track team was back with more numbers than fifth-year head coach Matt Hazen has ever seen in his tenure for the Bulldogs.
In Hazen’s past years his teams have had a third-place finish and a fourth place finish and the goal this year is to best that showing.
“We’ve got a lot of young kids out,” Hazen said. “We’re at 55 athletes, the biggest track team that we’ve had since I’ve been head coach, and with the actual numbers hopefully we’ll be able to start placing higher as these kids get a little bit older and a little more poised in their events.”
Many Wheatland athletes competed well including Khayla Otero (1st place long jump and Rodee Brow (1st place pole vault) each pre-qualified for the state tournament and for a first meet coming off adverse conditions, Hazen was pleased.
“It never ceases to amaze me seeing the drive and courage of my athletes and the poise they showed at our first track meet in Newcastle,” Hazen said. “We have only been able to practice twice on the track in the previous three weeks and they still went out and left it all on the track. They could have made every excuse in the book to dog their events and take the easy way out because they have not been able to train properly yet, but that was not the case in Newcastle. They put in every ounce of effort they hand and it showed, the team did great despite all the odds stacked against them. We had two athletes that pre-qualified for state track, Khayla Otero in the long jump and Rodee Brow in pole vault. I am extremely pleased with each and every athlete this week and am looking forward to getting them out on the track after the snow melts so they can push themselves to even higher levels at the next meet.”
As the weather cooperates, the WHS track team will host a varsity invitational tomorrow at Bulldog stadium beginning at 11 a.m. Teams from Cheyenne South, Douglas, Rawlins and Torrington will be in attendance.
Results for Newcastle’s Laura Chord Memorial Track Invite:
Adam Suko
100 Meter Dash – 12.68 // 9th Place
200 Meter Dash – 25.19 // 7th Place
Aric Suko
100 Meter Dash – 13.47 // 30th Place
400 Meter Dash – 64.67 // 13th Place
Long Jump – 18 – 3 // 3rd Place
Austen Warren
100 Meter Dash – 13.94 // 38th Place
Brenna Fredricks
Shot Put – 19 – 5 // 25th Place
Discus – 63 – 8 // 15th Place
Mylie Benson
100 Meter Dash – 15.38 // 18th Place
200 Meter Dash – 32.13 // 16th Place
Cole Goertz
100 Meter Dash – 12.79 // 13th Place
200 Meter Dash – 26.25 // 22nd Place
Rory Anderson
