Lady Warriors bring home fourth-place plaque from 3A State indoor meet

Every point mattered for the Worland Lady Warriors indoor track team, which brought home the program's first-ever state placing hardware and had an individual state champion at last week's 3A State indoor track meet.

The Lady Warriors finished fourth and had Anna Richardson win the high jump at the 3A State indoor track meet in Gillette on March 1-2.

Worland scored 60 points to finish fourth, Evanston was third with 61 points, Torrington finished second with 74 points, and Cody repeated as the 3A girls indoor state champion with 106 points.

"Getting one more point to move up to third would have been nice, but they do get a plaque for fourth, which was one of our goals to be a placing team," said WHS indoor coach Shawn Ivie.

This is just the second season that indoor has been separated into two classes, 3A and 4A. Before that, every school competed in one class. Class 3A is also the largest indoor class, with 16 schools competing in both boys and girls divisions.

The Lady Warriors' fourth-place finish is the highest finish for the program, and it took a total team effort to pull off. While the team was only a point away from tying for third, Star Valley was on Worland's heels as they finished fifth with 59 points.

To score team points, an athlete or relay must finish in the top eight.

Worland had Richardson take first in the high jump, clearing 5-2 and was sixth in the 55-meter hurdles (9.39). In the 200-meter dash, Cherise Douzenis (26.92) and Maddy Lloyd (27.86) placed fifth and seventh, respectively.

In the 400-meter dash, Douzenis finished fifth (1:03).

For the distance runs, Zena Tapia was fifth in the 1600-meter run (5:31.89) and third in the 3200-meter (12:11.77). Ava Tapia finished fourth in the 3200-meter run (12:26.53).

Kalistynn Crippen was sixth in the high jump, clearing 4-10. In the long jump, Douzenis went 15-9.75 to finish sixth.

All four of the Lady Warriors relays placed. The 4x200-meter relay (Maddy Lloyd, Kalistynn Crippen, Nyssa Leyva, Erika Manahan) was second (1:50.51), the 4x800-meter relay (Nyssa Leyva, Dakota Cervantes, Ava Tapia, Zena Tapia) was fifth (11:10.90), the sprint medley (Allie Stamtakos, Timber Decker, Erika Manahan, Nyssa Leyva) ran a 4:40.12 to finish sixth and the 4x400-meter relay (Allie Stamtakos, Erika Manahan, Anna Gunderson, Nyssa Leyva) was seventh (4:30.39).

"For us especially, so many girls contributed to it. Anna got first, which is 10 points, but she was our only first. Going through the list, so many different girls were a part of our placing, whether it was the relays or individual. Cherise placed in two events, Kalistynn was on a few of the relay, our freshmen Timber and Allie were on one of the relays and someone like Anna Gunderson was on the 4x4 which scored points. Everyone ran really good times and splits.

"Maddy got up into the top eight in the 200, and a lot of times, she's been right there at ninth, but getting into the finals gave us points. Ava had a really good run and placed fourth in the two-mile. A lot of them were pushing themselves and performing. Even the ones who didn't place pushed themselves too and got PRs," said Ivie. "Placing gives them confidence, and a lot of them are back next year."

Richardson won the high jump at 5-2 without scratching which is how she beat out Douglas' Desirae Iacovetto who also cleared 5-2 but had a scratch.

Returning home a state champion has been due to weeks of hard work for Richardson. Along with the other high jumpers, the junior worked hard in practice to build that consistency.

Then, in their final practice before state, Lisa Crawford, who holds WHS's outdoor high jump record at 5-6.25, helped the high jumpers with their final preparations.

"Part of it is that Anna works really hard in practice. All the high jumpers do. She won, and Kalistynn finished sixth. Erika PR'd and was ninth and just off of placing because of a scratch. Noah was second. All of the high jumpers put in a lot of work.

"The night before state, Lisa Crawford, she has the school record in outdoor, but she came in and helped them. Anna has done enough practice that she built that consistency. It's not like she got 5-2 once on a good day, but it's something that she can do consistently," said Ivie. "She's getting her back over it and has the potential to even add on to it. She's got outdoor this year and indoor next year. There's room for her to improve by continuing to work at it."

Ivie continued, "There were nerves with it being state, but at the same time you just have to do what you do and have done in practice. High jump is quick. There are a lot of things you have to do, but you don't have time to think of them all as you're going through the air. You have to have done them enough to have the muscle memory. That's where the practice comes in."

On the Warriors side, Noah Mitchell finished second in the high jump (6-0) and 55-meter hurdles (7.95).

Trajn Swalstad placed in two individual events, finishing third in the 3200-meter (9:56.79) and fifth in the 1600-meter (4:41.32)

The Warriors also had a relay team place at state. The 4x800-meter (Ira Croft, Will Bishop, Ivan Thomas, Trajn Swalstad) finished seventh, crossing the finish line at 9:10.36.

"We had two place well in multiple events. Noah got second in the high jump and did really well for someone who had just started the high jump this year. He got second in the hurdles and got a PR in that, too. Just like with Anna, Noah is heading into the outdoor season with a lot of steam," said Ivie. "Trajn placed third in the two-mile and was fifth in the mile. Then he was in the 4x8 team that placed."

Look to next week's edition of the Northern Wyoming News for a recap of the Worland Indoor season.