Worland track starts the season off on the right foot

CASPER - The Worland High School track team got their season underway at the Glen Legler Memorial Early Bird invite Saturday at Natrona High School in Casper.

About half of the Worland team traveled to Casper to compete against 21 other schools, from all four classes; while not operating at full strength WHS track coach Tracey Wiley was proud of her team's performance.

"It was good. The big thing we saw was Brad (Lyman in the high jump) and the boys 4x100-meter relay team automatically qualify for state. It's two in the books and every week we try to add to that list," said Wiley

Added Wiley, "It was just good for us to go compete against that level of competition. Some of which we won't see, and other we will see in our conference like Douglas, Torrington and Buffalo. Overall it was a good day, it was beautiful, it was hot and it was a little windy. I was proud of the kids, they all competed hard and there was no complaining."

Senior Brad Lyman automatically qualified for the 3A State Meet in May with a jump of 6-2, which was good for second place in the high jump. The Warrior 4x100-meter relay team of Blaine Kroger, Cody Newell, Dimon Taylor and Lyman, finished eighth with a time of 46.13 seconds and also AQ'd for the 3A State Meet.

"We're going to have challenges every week, even though they qualified. We still want to put the fastest four boys together even though regionals is a ways off," said Wiley when talking about the strategy for 4x100m relay team.

The Warrior discus throwers had a strong showing Saturday as well, junior Maclin Wiley was third, Taylor Horath ninth and Morgan Tigner 12th.

"Placing out of 104 kids and a lot of them 4A kids, I was really proud of them," said Wiley. "The discus went from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. and our boys were in the last couple of flights. To have to wait in the heat all day long, I was really happy for them to perform like they did because that can be draining."

Josh Garza in the pole vault, Kylah Mills in the long jump and Luke Mortimer in the 300-meter hurdles all had performances that impressed their coach.

"Josh (Garza) hasn't been able to compete since he broke his leg so he wasn't real happy with his vault. I told him that he'll get it, he's not that far off from automatically qualifying ... Kylah (Mills) had a good day too she finished 12th in the long jump and we were proud of her performance ... We were also really proud of our freshman Luke Mortimer, the hurdles are higher in high school. Last year in middle school he was one of the top hurdlers and last week in practice it was a bit of a mental thing for him, but we got him three-stepping them by the end of the week. I was really proud of him for doing so well and he's just going to get better," said Wiley.

This week the Warriors and Lady Warriors prepare for another Saturday meet at Cody High School where the team will look to keep improving.

"We're excited for Cody this Saturday and we'll get a look at some more teams too," said Wiley. "Our main goal for any week is to set PRs [personal records] each meet. I tell the kids that you have to show up and compete each week. We'll look to finetune some things as well as continuing conditioning."

With spring break around the corner Wiley will not be able to take her full complement of athletes just yet, but nonetheless she is excited to get another meet under their belt.

"It will be the start of spring break so we're not sure how many we're taking right now. It will probably between 45-40 kids going. I'll take anyone that wants to go and compete. I get the family thing and everyone wants to spend time with their families and the kids are not punished for that, so hopefully we'll be back in full strength after the break. Either way we're excited and know what we need to do going forward."

The results from the Glen Legler Memorial Early Bird invite are as follows.

(Top eight)

Girls

4x100 Meter Relay

3, Worland (Tallon Andersen, Sierra Borovatz, Kylah Mills, Kylie Woffinden), 54.50.

Boys

200 Meter Dash

4, Cody Newell, 23.93.

110 Meter Hurdles

7, Brad Lyman, 17.95.

300 Meter Hurdles

8, Luke Mortimer, 45.72.

4x100 Meter Relay

8, Worland (Blaine Kroger, Cody Newell, Daimon Taylor, Brad Lyman), 46.13.

4x800 Meter Relay

8, Worland (Jaden Mickelson, Tyler Hasbany, Caleb Fraser, Porter Harman), 9:54.59.

High Jump

2, Brad Lyman, 6-02.00.

Pole Vault

5, Josh Garza, 11-06.00.

Discus

3, Maclin Wiley, 132-01.