Dogies leave it all on the track

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The 2021 track season came to a close and the Dogies repped Newcastle well at the state meet in Casper last Thursday through Saturday, with eight individuals and two relay teams earning a spot on the podium throughout the weekend. 
Shelby Tidyman, Jaylen Ostenson and Tiernan Stanton were the only Lady Dogies to earn a state berth and in their inaugural state track appearance Tidyman and Stanton garnered two top-eight finishes while Ostenson earned one. 
“These sophomores have been a lot of places and had quite a bit of success in basketball and volleyball, but this is the first time for them in an individual sport,” Ostenson stated. “It’s kind of a grind over three days, but they rose to the challenge and competed pretty well against the best the state has to offer.”
Tidyman qualified for the culminating event in both the 100 and 200 Meter races. In the 100, she finished fifth place in both the prelims and finals with a time of 13.73 and 13.64 respectively. In the finals of the race, there was a mere .38 of a second that separated her from first place and a state title. 
In the 200 Meter Dash, Tidyman just made the cut for finals with her 27.88 second, eighth-place finish in the prelims, but moved up a spot to seventh place with a time of 28.37. In this race, there was just a little over a second separating her from the title.
“Shelby had a really good weekend,” Ostenson began. “The 100 and 200 are both pretty big-time races, but she held her own and ran strong. Toward the end of the year, she just kept getting stronger and stronger every week.”
Stanton competed in the triple jump and the shot put over the weekend. In only her third week of competition in the triple jump, the sophomore leaped a personal best of 32 feet, 5 inches to earn an eighth place podium appearance, and she threw 33 feet, 2 inches in the shot put which also resulted in an eighth-place finish. 
“Tiernan battled, which I really liked,” Ostenson said. “She took care of business and worked hard to get to where she got. She hit the mark she had to hit on her second-to-last jump, so that was fun to see her rise to the challenge to get on the podium.”
Ostenson had three events on her slate over the weekend, and though she only advanced to the finals in the 100 Meter Hurdle, she was close in both the 300 Meter Hurdle and the discus throw where she finished 10th in both.
In the grueling 300 Meter Hurdle, Ostenson crossed the finish line in 49.64 seconds which was just .45 of a second out of advancing her to finals, and in the discus, she let go of a 100 feet, 5 inch toss which was only nine inches shy of the finals mark.
The 3A 100 Meter Hurdle race was as competitive as it could get with a plethora of talent throughout the state. Coach Ostenson knew it would be anyone’s race when it came down to the final run, and Jaylen made the cut with her 17.31 second finish in the prelims, earning her eighth place. In the finals, the sophomore also was eighth in 17.52. Only .50 of a second separated her from third place. 
“Jaylen had a solid weekend and started the prelims of the 100 really nicely and in her first six hurdles she was in the lead,” Ostenson described. “But then she bumped a hurdle which threw her off and had to four-step the remaining four, and that allowed for the pack to get past her.”
Gunner and Grayson Ramsey, along with Zach Purviance were the three individual medal winners for the men’s team. 
Gunner went into the state meet with a full slate, and finished 10th in the 100 Meter Dash with a time of 12.13 and 13th in the 200 Meter Dash with a time of 24.41 seconds. It was the high jump which would give him a podium presence and would also earn the Dogies their best finish of the weekend. Ramsey tied for fourth place with his leap of 5 feet, 10 inches.
“There was only two- or three-tenths of a second difference between who made the finals in the 100,” Ostenson explained. “It was a good thing that they had a photo finish to see who the top eight were because there was only .23 of a second difference between first and 10th.”
“In the high jump, Gunner hit 5 feet, 8 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches on his first try, which is what gave him the tie for fourth,” he continued. “At 6 foot, 0 inches, there were seven kids left and all went out but three so because he had no misses at the lower heights meant he got fourth over the other three.”
Grayson Ramsey competed in three different events over the weekend. His two individual opportunities were the 110 Meter Hurdle, which he ran for the first time at the regional meet in Torrington the week prior to the state meet, and the 300 Meter Hurdle, which he qualified for early in the year. In the 110s, Grayson just missed out on advancing to the finals with his 17.29 second, 10th-place finish which was a mere .13 of a second out of the top eight. 
He made the cut in the 300s, however, as he crossed the finish line in eighth place with a time of 43.19 seconds. He was able to improve to seventh place in the finals as he crossed the finish line in 44.40 seconds.
“Grayson was brand new to the 110s so I was pretty pleased with his finish there,” Ostenson said. “He really had a nice run in the 300s, and was solid pretty much all the way through. It was fun to see him get into the finals because he worked pretty hard at that throughout the year. In the finals, a kid false-started right beside him and I think that got in his head because he didn’t have a great start, which meant he had to make up time.”
Purviance made podium appearances in three of his four events, two of which were as a member of a relay team. In his individual events, he missed finals in the 400 Meter Dash by just two places and .29 of a second, but in the 800 Meter race he made the cut by crossing the finish line in eighth place with a time of 2:05.17.
“The wind was rough that day, but he ran a great race in the 400 and was right in there,” Ostenson declared. “The 800 was a great race all the way around. The kids really competed hard, and both Zach and Tristan [Troftgruben, ninth place] really gutted it out, with both getting around a Lander kid to get their finishes. They had a great race.”
The 1600 Meter Medley, the relay team of Gunner Ramsey, Holden McConkey, Tristan Troftgruben and Purviance were the first competition of the meet and they finished fifth with a time of 3:45.55, while 4x400 Meter Relay team of Grayson Ramsey, Dylan Drost, Troftgruben and Purviance closed out the meet and also garnered a fifth-place finish in 3:41.50. 
“In the Medley, the teams ahead of us had some sprinters and they were impressive to watch, but we were able to get in there and hold our own,” Ostenson declared. “The 4x4 is everyone’s favorite and it’s a tough one to gut out at the end of three long days. The crowd was fantastic and it was just a lot of fun. We were right in there between third and sixth, and there was a lot of jostling going on. There was only .2 of a second between us and the fourth-place team, and we got that because Zach got him on the lean.”
“I was really proud of all of our kids,” Ostenson concluded. “The guys also left it all on the track, when they were done, they were done which is exactly what you want to see because you know that they gave it all they had.”
The end of the season means that Coach Ostenson will say goodbye to several senior leaders on the boys team, however he will return all of the girls as the team was made up of only four sophomores and a freshman.