Tracksters load up state slate

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies went into the 3A East Regional track meet last weekend determined to do their best, and did just that coming out with 13 athletes qualified for the state meet in 23 different events. Personal best marks abounded on the weekend as nearly every athlete posted a personal record in their events, whether or not their performance earned them a state berth.
“We had a really good weekend and I was really happy with how our kids did,” said head coach Chad Ostenson. “The ones that didn’t make it to finals had PRs and all you can ask is for kids to do their best and they did that.”
Shelby Tidyman and Jaylen Ostenson had prequalified in a couple of events earlier in the year, however Ostenson added two events to her slate while Tiernan Stanton punched her ticket in two events over the weekend.
For the Dogies, Grayson and Gunner Ramsey, Zach Purviance, Dylan Drost, Bridger Alishouse, Tristan Troftgruben, Holden McConkey, Jacob and Thomas Prell and Teegan Hatheway will all make appearances in one or more events in Casper as well.
After suffering a slight injury to his quadricep in the last regular season meet the week before regionals, Ostenson wasn’t sure how Grayson Ramsey would fare. However, Ramsey quickly put any concern out of mind as he appeared unhindered in his three qualifying events. 
“Grayson had a heck of a weekend,” Ostenson said. “When he came up as a freshman, I had high hopes for him in the 110 hurdles and then he kind of lost interest and was struggling with them over the last couple of years. But he came back and we entered both him and [Dylan] Drost last weekend, and Grayson picked back up where he was before. He had confidence and was getting over them really well and put up the third best time going into finals.” 
His finish in the prelims of the 110 Meter Hurdle qualified him for the state meet, and he went on to take fourth place in the finals on Saturday with a time of 17.75 seconds. 
Ramsey also had a great weekend in the 300 Meter Hurdle. After the 110s, he came back with a solid run in the grueling, big boys’ race, finishing third in the prelims and second in the finals, posting PRs with each race. According to Ostenson, his final time of 41.71 puts him amongst the top times in 3A for that event. 
Finally, Ramsey ran the second leg of the 4x400 Meter Relay with his team finishing third, thereby earning their place at the state meet. Drost, Troftgruben and Purviance made up the other three members of the team and will be joining him in competition this weekend.
Gunner Ramsey was not to be outdone by his twin, and one-upped him by qualifying in four events over the weekend. He had already punched his ticket in the open 100 Meter Dash, the high jump and Sprint Medley Relay, but on Friday he added the 200 Meter Dash to his repertoire as well. In the finals of the 100, Ramsey finished fourth, and did the same in the finals of the 200 Meter with times of 11.86 and 23.83, respectively. Though he was two inches short of his best jump of the year, his fourth-place finish in the high jump also gave him a qualifying mark in that event.
Finally, as the lead-off runner in the Sprint Medley, Ramsey helped to propel his team of McConkey, Purviance and Troftgruben to their third-place finish in 3:47.47.
In addition to his two relay qualifying events, Purviance also advanced in the open 400 Meter and open 800 Meter races, finishing sixth and fourth respectively. In the 400, he posted a PR of 53.07 and also burned up the track in the 800 finishing with a PR of 2:02.02. 
Troftgruben also added two individual events to go along with his two relays. In the 800 he finished in sixth place with a PR of 2:03.83, and in the mile he was seventh and did so with another personal best time of 4:51.88. 
“The 800 was a really fun race to watch,” Ostenson said. “It was a tough race that was really close, and Tristan and Zach ran pretty close together with only a second separating their times.”
Holden McConkey turned it on over the weekend, and was paid off with a qualifying performance in the open 200 to go along with his sprint medley state berth. He just made
his way into the finals by finishing eighth in the prelims of the 200 Meter Dash on Friday, but came back on Saturday to shave just about half a second off his time and moved up to fifth place overall.
“Holden was kind of a surprise in the 200,” Ostenson said. “I expected him to make it to state, but he ended up fifth in finals right behind Gunner, so that was great.”
Alishouse also procured an individual event for the state meet by finishing eighth in the two mile run, Drost nabbed one individual event by finishing sixth in the 300 Meter Hurdle, while Jacob and Thomas Prell, Alishouse and Hatheway punched their ticket as part of the 4x800 Meter Relay team who finished fourth with a time of 9:15.50. 
“Our 4x8 relay kind of surprised me. Coach [Kathy] Beehler and I wanted to throw one together to see what we could do, and we ended up getting three kids who didn’t qualify in an individual event the opportunity to compete at the state meet,” Ostenson stated. All four guys cut time off their 800 so that was kind of fun and I was happy for that crew.”
Tidyman went into regionals having prequalified in both the 100 and 200 Meter races, however the weekend was her first opportunity to go up against all of her 3A competition. She and Khayla Otero of Wheatland have gone head to head several times throughout the year and it came down to the two of them again on Saturday in the 100 Meter Dash. After tying last week, Otero just edged Tidyman out in the finals, however Shelby put up a personal best time of 13.25 seconds in her second-place finish.
In the 200 Meter finals, Tidyman finished fifth but once again posted a PR of 27.35 seconds. Unfortunately, she was unable to advance in the long jump as she was short just a couple of inches and was one place shy of making the top eight to punch her ticket in that event.
“Shelby looked really strong in both of her races. In the 200 prelims, they lost the times of her heat on the computer so they had to run it again,” Ostenson explained. “They gave them an hour to rest and then redid it and three or four kids in Shelby’s heat ended up making finals.”
Stanton tried her hand at the triple jump last week, so gave it another go at Regionals and finished fourth earning her way to state. 
“She hit a couple of good ones so that’s pretty impressive for just pulling it out of the bag,” Ostenson said. “She just hopped, skipped and jumped her way into the state meet, so that was pretty cool.”
Stanton went on to punch her ticket in the shot put, throwing it 33 feet, 1 inch for a fourth-place finish as well.
“It wasn’t her best throw of the season, but it was good enough to get her there,” Ostenson said. “A couple of those who finished ahead of her had PRs so I feel like she will be pretty strong at state and expect she’ll go into the weekend in the top 10 in both of her events.”
Jaylen Ostenson finished second in the 100 Meter Hurdle and cut almost a half a second off her race. She three-stepped the whole flight in both the prelims and the finals where she finished third then dropped a little more time in the finals for her second-place finish. In a field of tough competition, Coach Ostenson was pleased with her performance over the weekend. She had a photo finish in the finals, edging out Rylee Ward of Burns by .01 of a second.
“Just looking at the races, her prelims were just really nice,” he began. “And looking at the finals, I think she could still take off a little more time.”
In the 300 Meter Hurdle, Ostenson also performed well. Though it wasn’t her PR, it was close to it as she finished fourth with a time of 49.68. Finally, in the discus, Ostenson let go of a good one to take second with a 107-foot, 9-inch toss to earn her a spot there at state as well.
“Right after the hurdles were done, she had to run over for the finals in the disc so she didn’t have a lot of time to warm up,” Ostenson began. “I think she may have thrown one farther in her couple of warm-up throws, so there’s some potential there.”
Teams from the Eastern conferences in 1A, 2A and 3A competed together at the regional meet for the first time, which gave the kids a state-like environment. 
“That was fun to get to see that, and there are a lot of kids who have never been to a regional or state track meet, so it was a good experience for them,” Ostenson concluded. “I am also very pleased that the kids are peaking at just the right time as we head into the state meet.” 
The culminating event begins this Thursday at 3 p.m. in Casper with Alishouse in the 3200 Meter Run and Stanton competing in the shot put. Ostenson is set to run in the 100 Meter Hurdle prelims at 5:15 and then the men’s 1600 Sprint Medley team will go at 6:15. The complete schedule can be found on the WHSAA website.