A dozen Dogies

The Dogie and Lady Dogie track teams kicked off post-season competition with a bang Friday and Saturday at the 3A East Regional Track Meet in Wheatland. Mother Nature was kind to the tracksters by giving them perfect temperatures and calm breezes, which head Coach Matt Conzelman’s crew used to their advantage to perform well and earn some hardware.

“What an exciting time we had down in Wheatland!” Conzelman said. “We ended up with 29 [personal records] and 12 will be representing Newcastle High School in Casper this weekend. We could have had 15-20, though, because we had quite a few who just missed out on making it.”

Both the Lady Dogies and Dogies finished sixth as a team. There were six Dogies who had pre-qualified for the state meet, and at regionals, six more punched their tickets to the culminating meet.

Of the six who prequalified, Colton Vanderpool Mobley had done so in the 100 and 200 Meter dashes, Collin McConkey had in the 100 Meter Dash, Eli Morrill had made it in the Triple Jump, Casey Matthews in Pole Vault, CJ Hardy in High Jump, and Adalyn Olson in the 100 Meter Dash, the 100 Meter Hurdles and Long Jump.

Aspen Bloom punched her ticket at the meet with her personal best, second-place finishes in the mile and two-mile races, Delainey Dresen did so in the Triple Jump, McConkey did so in the 200 Meter Dash, Sam Cunningham made it in the mile and two-mile races, Thomas Prell got in with his fifth-place finish in Pole Vault, and Morrill added the 110 Meter Hurdles to his state slate.

“I knew Delainey could get the distance she needed in the triple jump,” Conzelman said. “That was pretty exciting to see her be able to do it, though, especially as a freshman in that do-or-die environment.”

According to Conzelman, the highlight of the day was Julie Morris’ performance in the Shot Put and Discus events. Last season, she came up just an inch short of making it to state in Shot Put, but this year she returned with a vengeance to finish in the top eight in both throwing events.

Both the 4x400 Relay team of Rurik Herrberg, Hardy, Drew Conzelman and Archer Ohnstad, and the Sprint Medley Relay team of Matthews, McConkey, Mobley and Cunningham finished just one place out of advancing to state as they crossed the finish line fifth in both races.

Adam Butler was also just one place — and just 1/100th of a second — away from advancing to state in the 110 Meter hurdles. Herrberg crashed on the third to last hurdle of the 300 Meter Hurdle race. Conzelman said that had he not fallen, he would have been in the running for a state berth in that event.

Hollie Swentesky got ninth in High Jump, despite clearing the same height as the two girls who finished ahead of her.

“Unfortunately, Hollie had more strikes against her than the two girls who finished ahead of her, so that pushed her out of making it to state,” Conzelman said, frowning.

Sam Scribner was projected to finish in the top eight in Pole Vault, however, in warm-ups the junior had a mishap with the pole, resulting in a severe bruise on his shin that sidelined him for the day.

“I’ve never seen a bruise form that quickly,” Conzelman said. “It was kind of scary, but he’ll bounce back and be okay.”

“We knew going in that everyone had to give it their best shot if they wanted to make it to the Big Dance,” Conzelman continued. “I was just really proud of how hard everyone competed.”

The 12 Dogies headed to state will be competing in 23 events over the course of the three-day tournament. Bloom and Cunningham will start things off on Thursday with the 3200 Meter Race at 3 p.m.