Dogies finish difficult season

 
Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Mother Nature may be mean, but at least she’s consistent. The Dogie track team has battled the elements all season, and nothing changed as they finished up the year last weekend at the 3A State Meet in Casper.
Adversity hit the Dogies right and left between the weather, injuries and nerves. Friday was cold and windy, Saturday it poured rain or snowed all day which resulted in the moving of all of the field events up a day to Friday. Two of the team’s top athletes — Cade Ostenson and Lexus Voelker — barely competed or didn’t compete at all due to injuries, and first-timers had to battle their own nervous energy which took too much out of them.
Thursday began with Dylan Talley and Tristan Troftgruben competing in the 3200 Meter run where they finished in 17th and 18th, respectively.
“It was Tristan’s first event and first state track meet, and I could tell right from the beginning that he was nervous because his eyes were pretty wide,” Ostenson chuckled. “Those nerves took a lot out of him, but he did pretty well considering, and it’s a tough race for those younger boys.”
Talley also competed in the 1600 Meter race on Saturday. Though his two-mile time was about 10 seconds slower than his Regional finish, he dug down deep for the mile, finishing 12th with a personal best time of 4:53.87.
“The mile was a fun race to watch,” Ostenson smiled. “In the first lap, he was running right in the middle of the pack, but they weren’t really running at a good pace, so he decided he was going to move out ahead.”
“He led the second and third lap, pacing them all. He knew he was probably going to burn himself out, but he had said before the race that if he was going to go down, he was going to go out and lead a couple of laps,” he continued. “You could see the last 250 meters were tough, but he was gutting it out and it was just really fun to watch.”
Talley and Troftgruben were also part of the 4x800 Meter Relay team who ended up with the best finish for
the Dogies on the weekend. Zach Purviance and PJ Martin were the other two members of the squad who finished in fifth place.
“Zach ran three 800s at the meet, and he just did a really nice job leading off the relay, putting the team in a nice position,” Ostenson began. “Then Tristan and PJ battled back and forth on the second and third legs, and Dylan finished it out, getting one at the end to take fifth. It was a good, solid showing and they ran well and did a nice job.”
The 1600 Meter Sprint Medley squad of Grayson Ramsey, Dylan Drost, Gunner Ramsey and Purviance got on the podium with their eighth-place finish.
“The team improved their time from Regionals,” Ostenson stated. “Grayson and Dylan took time off their 200s which helped and Gunner and Zach also took time off to get it down where it was.”
Purviance also competed in the open 800 where he finished 16th, while Gunner Ramsey tied for 10th place in the high jump.
Lauren Steveson just missed the podium in the discus placing ninth with a personal best throw of 100-02 and was 16th in the shot put. Avery Alishouse came in 14th in the triple jump with a leap of 29-09.5.
Cade Ostenson was the only Dogie to prequalify for the meet — which he did in five events — and was scheduled to run the 110 Meter hurdles on Thursday. The senior had been rehabbing an injury for the last two weeks, and knowing that his hamstring was questionable, Coach Ostenson decided to pull him out of that race in an attempt to save him for the long jump, the event he had a very good chance to win.
“It turns out that he wasn’t ready, and it was a tough one that he was not able to go,” coach Ostenson sighed. “You could see on his first run through that he wasn’t going to be able to compete like he can.”
Ostenson’s injury resulted in him finishing 11th, marking a jump of 19-00.75 which was three feet, seven inches short of the school record he set at the Spearfish meet in April. It also meant that the senior cut his career short, as the long jump was the one and only event he competed in over the weekend.
“Hamstrings are tough, and I don’t think he did any more damage to it, but we are back at square one with it now,” coach Ostenson stated. “It will probably be a month before he’ll be anywhere near being able to get back into anything.”
As the season came to a close, Ostenson reflected that it had not been the easiest one but that he was proud of his athletes for fighting through the adversity.
“It was the toughest season we’ve had. Last year we had a couple of meets get cancelled but a lot of the practice days were good,” he frowned. “This year, we only had a few good days which made it hard to get anything done.”
While the inclement weather made the season difficult, the greatest disappointment for Ostenson was the injuries that plagued his squad.
“It was kind of a sad year because Lex is probably one of the best sprinters in the state and she only got to compete in one meet due to injuries. Cade is among the top three or four hurdlers in the state and the top long jumper in the state but he finished it off with an injury. Kaylee [Sweet] started late because of an injury, while Mak [Wagoner] cut her season short with an injury as well. I’m sure there’s something good that’s coming out of it though,” he determined.  
As it is every year, the Dogies bid adieu to the seniors who have been a big part of the squad’s success over the years. They include Ostenson, Steveson, Voelker, Talley, Martin, Sweet, Wagoner, Sawyer Roberson, Dayton Williams, Peyton Purviance and Isaac Prell.
“We are definitely going to miss our seniors, but we had a lot of young kids do some good things so I’m really excited for the next few years,” Ostenson predicted. “The upcoming freshmen have some good talent so the future looks bright. The girls have set about five school records at the middle school so they are bringing some great talent to the team.”