First place in Upton

Three more Dogies qualify for state

Head coach Matt Conzelman’s Dogie track team took advantage of the beautiful weather in Upton Friday to put up several personal records, qualify three more athletes in three different events for the state competition, finish first or second in several events, and the men’s team brought home first place overall.

“It was a pretty exciting day,” Conzelman said. “There were 40 new personal bests set between the two teams, and getting a win with the boys’ team was awesome!”

The three athletes who punched their tickets to the state meet include Colton Vanderpool Mobley, Collin McConkey and Adalyn Olson.

Vanderpool Mobley qualified in both the 100 and 200 Meter Dash, setting PRs of 11.48 and 23.61 seconds, respectively, in the process and finishing first in the 200.

McConkey also qualified in those two events while running two new PRs on the day, finishing in 11.62 in the 100 and 23.71 in the 200.

Olson qualified in the 100 Meter Dash where she finished first in a personal best time of 12.92 seconds.

“I didn’t get to watch the guys’ races, because I was running long jump at the time and couldn’t see the track,” Conzelman admitted. “But Beau [Gregory] said everybody had really good starts out of the blocks, and they were running against guys who are a little bit faster than we are, so I think that gave them some competition to push them.”

“I did get to watch Adalyn’s race though,” he continued. “It was pretty close for about the first 40 meters, but she also got a good start, and then she started to open up and she finished strong.”

CJ Hardy finally got past the 6-foot mark in the High Jump, which had been the highest mark he has hit in his career, as he finished first in that event with a leap of 6 feet, 2 inches.

“I think a lot of what he was fighting was really mind over matter. The jump he failed on at 6 feet, 2 inches last week, he was staring at the bar the entire time,” Conzelman said. “So, between a lot of technique work over the past week, and just him believing he could, allowed him to get over the bar this week.”

For the ladies, Olson not only PR’d in the 100, but did the same in the 100 and 300 Meter Hurdles, Delainey Dresen put up new personal best in the 100, as did Lillie Morrill. Morrill also had a PR in the High Jump.

Julie Morris PR’d in both Shot Put and Discus, Kyndal Von Eye did so in the disc and Hollie Swentesky leaped a personal best in High Jump.

“We all really had a good day,” Conzelman said. “When it’s warm like it was, it really benefits jumpers and sprinters. It’s a little tougher on the distance kids, but they also had a pretty good day.”

To that end, Aspen Bloom ran a PR of 5:49.05 in the 1600 Meter race where she also claimed first place. She then repeated her first-place finish in the two-mile race as well. Lane Carter ran two new personal bests in the 1600 and 3200 Meter races, while Aksel Scott ran PRs in the 800 and 1600 Meter runs.

Both the men’s and women’s 4x100 teams finished first in their respective races. The team of Morris, Swentesky, Dresen and Olson finished with a time of 54.62, while the squad made up of Mobley, Cole Erb, Casey Matthews and McConkey finished in 45.79 seconds.

All six Dogies who competed in the 100 Meter Dash set new PRs. In addition to Vanderpool Mobley and McConkey, Matthews, Erb, Dane Crabtree and Drew Conzelman all ran personal bests.

Jayden Corley and Denali Davies sprinted to new personal bests in the 200 Meter Dash, Crabtree and Davies also ran PRs in the 400 Meter Dash.

Eli Morrill set a new PR in the 110 Meter Hurdles where he finished in second place, and he leaped a personal best in Triple Jump, where he finished in third.

Sam Scribner, Crabtree and Conzelman each set PRs in Long Jump, Corley and Erb did so in the Triple Jump, Matthews and Thomas Prell soared over the pole vault bar for personal bests, Dayne Evenson picked up a PR in Shot Put, while McConkey and Dagan Thompson each PR’d in Discus Throw.

“It was great to get those three qualified, but everyone else is kind of locking in getting closer to qualifying standards as well,” Conzelman said. “Between the runs, the sprints and jumps we still have three weeks and three opportunities to get some more in.”

This week, the Dogies will have a shot at qualifying more athletes when they travel to Custer for a chilly meet there on Thursday. Action gets under way at 9 a.m. with throwing.