Shawn O’Brate
RIVERTON – One of the largest track and field meets in the state of Wyoming took place at Riverton High School on Saturday with the Roy Peck Invitational, named after the former state senator and publisher of the Ranger.
Almost 20 teams from around Wyoming, specifically Fremont County, participated throughout the day and many teams had athletes that beat personal records (PR) and even some that qualified for regionals later this month.
With the large amount of teams that ran, jumped and threw at the Roy Peck Invitational it’s almost impossible to mention every student athlete that deserves to be mentioned so this article will appear a little differently than past track recaps:
Riverton High School
Senior Ciarah Hall not only finished third in the triple jump but she also helped her girls squad win the 1600-meter sprint medley ahead of Big Piney. Her medley teammate, junior McAye Fegler, set a new PR in the 400m dash with her 1:04.46 finish which landed her in the top-ten in the event.
As for the boys it was once again senior Tristan Watkins taking first place in the 100m dash, setting a new PR by a little less than two-tenths of a second. He also took first in the 200m dash just nine-tenths of a second in front of his senior teammate Caleb Crowley who also set a new personal best with his 23.55-second finish in the event.
Crowley barely missed his PR in the 400m dash but he did have yet another top-three finish while junior Hayden Prettyman came in eighth in the same run.
The distance runs helped Riverton gain some points at the end of the day as sophomore Kaden Chatfield took second in the 3200m run with a speedy time of 10:02.20 which was over 15-seconds faster than his previous best. In that same 3200m event Riverton sophomore Jacob Castro finished eighth with a personal best 11:15.23, shredding his previous record by eleven seconds.
Castro and Chatfield also helped propel their team’s 4x800m relay team into first by two-hundredths of a second, barely beating Rock Springs by a hair.
Hurdling was also a strong point for Riverton as junior Donald Grosch finished fifth in the 300m and eighth in the 110m hurdles. Grosch’s junior teammate Alex Sekely also had a good day, finishing eighth in the 300m and ninth in the 110m, both athletes came shockingly close to beating their previous PRs in both events but will have another attempt next week at the Shane Brock Invitational.
Lander Valley High School
The Lander girls team created plenty of opportunities for themselves, ultimately finishing second in points at the end of the day thanks to some top-tier finishes throughout the Roy Peck event.
But, starting with the boys, the Lander 4x100m relays finished second by less than seven-tenths of a second while the individual performances varied across the board. Junior Matisse Weaver finished sixth in the 100m and 200m dash with regionals-qualifying times in both. Not only that, Weaver set a PR in the 400m dash with a 3A-qualifying time of 51.99-seconds which garnered a second-place finish for the super speedy junior.
When it came to distance running Diego Lobatos finished sixth in the 3200m run with a blitzing time of 10:45.49, slicing the sophomore’s previous best by over 40 seconds. He finished almost a minute ahead of his teammate, sophomore Ray Gribowskas, who killed his PR by over 45 seconds.
Although, like previously stated, it was the girls who stole the show for Lander as they finished top-three in seven individual events and first in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Many of those excellent individual finishes were thanks to Lander senior Abigail Gribowskas who had herself a day.
She finished second in the long jump and third in both the 400m run and the 200m dash–qualifying in all three events and setting personal bests in both of the track events. She also helped the 4x100m relay team by taking the baton in the second leg.
The anchor leg for both the winning relay teams, sophomore Avery Crane, also had one of the hottest days of any girl from any school visiting Riverton on Saturday as she helped her teams finish first and finished first in the 300m hurdles with a regional-qualifying time of 49.51-seconds.
Another Avery that had a great day was sophomore Avery Bever who finished third in the 100m dash, eighth in the 200m dash and was the opening leg for the first-place 4x100m relay team. Junior Marlee Jones also helped boost her team’s point total with a fourth-place finish in the 1600m run, right ahead of junior Kyra Simonson who also finished fifth in the 3200m run. And finally, senior Asha Reid finished third in the high jump.
Shoshoni High School
Senior Braeden Cash beat his personal best in the 1600m run by almost ten whole seconds while also helping his boys 1600m medley team finish fourth as the opening leg.
Junior Ethan Jensen also had respectable times in the 100m dash and 110m hurdles, almost beating his PRs in both, while also having great leaps in the long jump and the high jump–only missing his best in the high jump by two inches.
Not many Shoshoni girls participated in the Roy Peck but senior Riana Tidwell had a nice triple jump score, 29-feet and over six-inches, and she was only two seconds behind her personal best in the 400m dash.
Dubois High School
A few of Dubois’ best athletes were unable to compete in their best events, like senior Max Claar who had a false start in the 100m dash which halted any chances of him beating his 12.40-second PR, but there were plenty of amazing athletes to pick up some of the slack.
Sophomore Wyatt Trembly did PR in the 200m dash while also finishing with a 2A-qualifying time of 24.05-seconds. Trembly also PR’d and placed seventh in the 400m dash with a 1A-qualifying time of 53.95-seconds. Not just that, Trembly finished top-five in the 110m hurdles with a 2A-qualifying time of 16.94-seconds, leading to an all-around awesome day for the Dubois superstar.
In the pole vault it was senior Dre Sanderson who was just six inches below his personal best, but still pushed himself high enough to finish sixth overall in the boys’ tallest field event.
Afterwards it was senior Cody Wright who had one of the best performances of a Dubois Ram on the day with his second place finish in the long jump with a PR 18-foot and two-inch leap. Wright also had a nice finish in the triple jump behind his teammate, junior Ryan Wells, who finished first in the event with a huge jump of over 40-feet.
For the girls it was junior Maren Baker, who finished sixth in the pole vault with a 1A-qualifying height of seven-feet and six-inches, who had one of the better days for the Lady Rams.
There was also Molly Sanchez who finished less than two-tenths of a second behind her personal best in the 100m hurdles and the 300m hurdles.
Western Heritage Lutheran Academy
With only a few girls participating in the Roy Peck Invitational the results were limited but there were some shining moments for the team. One of which was sophomore Kelsey Parmely’s fifth-place finish in the girls long jump with a 14-foot and six-inch jump.
The girls’ 4x100m relay also had a strong showing, finishing fourth behind Worland, Kemmerer and Lander Valley. Their 56.77-second finish in the event was less than a second behind the school record but senior Evelynn Lehto’s anchor leg performance was still very impressive.
Lehto also had a great performance in the long jump, finishing top-fifteen with a 12-foot and eleven-inch leap. She also was just two-tenths of a second behind her PR in the 100m dash and one second shy of her PR in the 200m dash.
Wind River High School
Over the course of the season it was junior Jaycee Herbert who has helped boost Wind River’s points total at track events but with almost two times as many Lady Cougars showing up to the Roy Peck Invitational as Cougars it seemed like it was their time to shine.
That’s not to say that Herbert didn’t have yet another great day, he finished fourth in the 100m dash–just three-hundredths of a second behind his PR–and eighth in the 200m dash, just 1.2-seconds behind Riverton’s Watkins.
But back to the Lady Cougars, who had an outstanding day, with freshman Emma Miller continuing to raise the bar–literally and figuratively–as she rose to the challenge and finished first in the high jump with a PR of four-foot-ten-inches. She finished with the same height as sophomore Mina King in the event, meaning Wind River took first and second in the girls jump–both finishing with 2A qualifying jumps.
Another great performance in a field event was junior AnnaBeth Bornhoft who had a PR in the 100m dash but, more importantly, she finished eighth in the pole vault with a tall-finish of seven-foot-six-inches.
The girls also had two top-ten finishes in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays which is not surprising with how they have performed on the season up to this point.
St. Stephens Indian High School
The St. Stephens group of kids were also finishing in the top-ten in relays, with the boys garnering a seventh-place finish in the sprint medley and the girls finishing fourth in the 4x800m relay.
Speaking of the girls, it was Medallyon Yellowbear with a massive 97-foot-five-inch discus throw that propped her up into the top-five in the event while also hurling the heavy shot put a bombing 30-foot-four-inch throw which was a little less than two-inches less than her previous best.
As for the boys, sophomore Zion Sioux finished the 400m dash with a personal best 57.78-second time and a long jump of 15-feet even which was just under nine-inches below his previous record. Also in the long jump, sophomore Cayden Lonedog came in 15th with a leap of just under seventeen-feet.
Wyoming Indian High School
As previously stated in issues before the Roy Peck Invitational, the Wyoming Indian Chiefs and Lady Chiefs of track and field are known for their distance running and Saturday was no different.
Senior Larissa McElroy beat her previous best of six-minutes in the 1600m run when she finished second on Saturday with a 5:50.91 time. She was also the anchor leg in the 1600m sprint medley, where Wyoming Indian won third, and the anchor leg of the 4x800m relay where they also won third.
The Slow Bear family also had a good day with Josh finishing tenth, right in front of Jason, in the long jump as well as the 100m dash and 400m dash, which marked their first attempt at the 400m event this season. The two Slow Bear’s were also part of the boys eighth-place finish in the 1600m sprint medley.
Kemmerer High School
Finally, the Kemmerer track and field squad finished phenomenally throughout the day. And even though they are not as highly-covered throughout Fremont County papers and media, they deserve to have a light shined on a few names.
One of those names being freshman Jolee Swaysey who finished top-six in both the 100m and 200m dash. Her teammate Keira Heiner, a junior, also finished well in the two events with a seventh-place finish in the 200m and an eighth-place finish in the 100m. Swaysey also had a huge jump in the long jump, 15-feet-11-inches to be exact, which landed her in first place at the end of the day.
Meanwhile, in the 800m run, the Kemmerer Lady Rangers had four top-ten finishes with Tyler Thatcher finishing fifth, Janae Skidmore finishing sixth, Aralynne Erickson finishing in eighth, and Lilly Jamison coming in ninth.
In the hurdles it was freshman Laynee Walker who showed up and showed out in one of her first events as a high schooler, finishing second in the 300m hurdles and third in the 100m hurdles. She also finished fourth in the pole vault with an eight-foot bound.
The field events were also dominated by senior Olivian Nelson who not only PR’d in the 100m dash but PR’d in the shot put with a 33-foot-five-inch throw, pushing her up the ranks to fifth on the day after finishing sixth in the discus throw just seven-inches behind her personal best.
The girls and boys also had great relays overall with the girls finishing second in both the 4x100m and 4x400m while the boys grabbed third in the 4×400. The boys also grabbed first in the 3200m run thanks to outstanding pacing from the junior Owen Burnett.
Burnett’s senior Ranger teammate, Tommy Skidmore, helped Kemmerer’s point total as well with a sixth-place finish in the high jump (5’6”) and a fourth place finish in the triple jump (38’2.25”). Skidmore also had a sixth-place finish in the 400m dash with a PR of 53.72-seconds.
Finally the senior Aiden Runnion, who has been continually improving over his three years of track and field, came in sixth in the 300m hurdles while recording a new PR in the 200m dash as well.
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As mentioned earlier the 2022 Shane Brock Invitational in Lander on Saturday, May 7th will be the next meet for many of these teams, including Riverton and Western Heritage, and will be one of the final chances to qualify for regionals for all teams involved.
There is also the Bobcat Invitational in Thermopolis on the 6th of May which will include Wind River, Dubois and Kemmerer. And the Cody Trackstravaganza on the 5th of May will have St. Stephens trying to improve against Worland and Cody.
These are all the last events before the Wyoming 1A-2A West Regionals on May 13th which will show the best-of-the-best from each school, possibly showing which student athletes will have a real chance at college stardom and maybe even future Olympic promises.