Dogies take the win!

Tracksters wrap up regular season strong

While Mother Nature was dropping snow on Newcastle Friday, the Dogie Track team traveled to Sundance where the air and the ground was dry, for the most part. In their last regular season meet of the year, head coach Matt Conzelman’s crew showed out with two state qualifying marks met and 31 personal bests achieved between the ladies and the men.

In addition, the Dogie men won the meet as a team by scoring 146 points, just edging out Sundance, who racked up 143 points.

“As bad as the weather was in Newcastle, I didn’t know what kind of day we were going to have, but it wasn’t bad at all. We’ve competed in worse,” Conzelman said, laughing. “It was a great day with 21 [personal records] for the boys and 10 for the girls.”

The two highlights of the day came with Adalyn Olson, not only winning the long jump, but leaping to a new PR and a 3A qualifying mark with her 16-foot, 4-inch jump. Then Casey Matthews, who had previously qualified in Pole Vault by clearing 12 feet, set a new PR in that event by flying over the bar at 12 feet, 3 inches.

“Adalyn was up against Sophie Louderback of Upton, who is really good,” Conzelman said. “Her first few jumps were where she has been, but on her last jump, she just hit the board really well to get that 16-foot, 4-inch jump, and everything came together perfectly.”

“Casey has been having pretty good practices and you can tell that his confidence is getting better,” he continued. “He had a good jumping day, and I think he is going to continue to get better, and I can’t wait to see what he does at regionals and state.”

Relays did well with the boys 4x100 Meter Relay team of Colton Vanderpool Mobley, Dane Crabtree, Matthews and Collin McConkey finishing first, the Sprint Medley team of Mobley, Crabtree, Teegan Hatheway and Sam Cunningham took third, and the girls Sprint Medley team of Delainey Dresen, Olson, Hollie Swentesky and Aspen Bloom finished fourth.

“Delainey is nursing a hip flexor issue, so that will probably be the last time we run that relay,” Conzelman explained. “And then we went back to the lineup that qualified in the boys 4x1 earlier so we could work on that combination for this week and next.”

For the Lady Dogies, Olson not only PR’d in Long Jump, but also in the 200 Meter Dash where she finished first. Swentesky marked personal bests in the 200 Meter Dash and Triple Jump, Julie Morris PR’d in both Shot Put and Discus, McKenzie Rose had a PR leap in the Long Jump, while Syd Pederson, Kyndal Von Eye and Ashlynn Shroyer all threw for personal best marks in the Discus.

Although she didn’t put up a personal best time, Bloom had a good day by finishing first in both the mile and two-mile races.

For the Dogie men, Cole Erb snagged three of the 31 personal best marks as he topped his previous best in the 400 Meter Dash, Triple Jump and Shot Put, Jayden Corley PR’d in the 100 Meter and Shot Put, Rurick Herrberg ran PRs in the 100 and 200 Meter dashes, while Rylan Fladstol had two new personal best throws in Shot Put and Discus.

Sam Scribner PR’d in the 200 Meter Dash, Aksel Scott did so in the 400 Meter Dash, Adam Butler nailed a new personal best in the 110 Meter Hurdles while Denali Davies did so in the 300 Meter Hurdles.

Aiden Butler leaped a PR in the Long Jump, while Dagan Thompson and Daymon Oliver threw for PRs in Shot Put and Discus, respectively.

Cunningham notched a PR with his 10:57.91 first-place finish in the two-mile run and, although he didn’t run his personal best in the mile, he also won that race in 4:58.11.

This week, the Dogies will head to Wheatland for the 3A East Regional Track meet on Friday and Saturday. Conzelman was pleased to see a favorable weather forecast regarding both temperatures and wind, so is hoping to see his team perform well.