Tracksters making up for lost meets

The Wyoming “spring” has been tough on sports and track has felt the sting of canceled meets so far this year. With the regular season winding down in just two weeks, teams across the state are desperately trying to make up for lost time.
As such, the Dogie track team found a way to get a meet in last Friday by tagging in to a meet in Douglas after having their Custer meet canceled on Thursday, and then picking up another opportunity to compete in Casper on Monday. 
“It was nice just to be able to get out there and compete,” admitted head coach Chad Ostenson. “We’ve lost so many opportunities and really haven’t even gotten to practice outside a lot because of the weather, so it was great to be able to get two meets in over the weekend.”
Though the team was challenged environmentally on Friday, they still managed to put up several PRs and competed well against the teams that attended the meet in Douglas. 
On the men’s side, Collin McConkey and Drew Conzelman had personal best times in the 100 and 200 Meter races, Colton Vanderpool Mobely finished eighth and had a PR in the 200 Meter race, Samuel Scribner topped his best time in the 100 Meter race and Logan Olson PRd in the 800 Meter run.
In the field events, Scribner was eighth in the triple jump and ninth in the long jump where he landed two more personal bests. Conzelman also had a PR in the triple jump, while Jayden Corley PRd in the long jump and the shot put.
Nate Strickland had personal best throws in both the shot and the discus and he finished 10th in the latter. Finally, Dane Evenson and Tayshaun Bynum had PRs with their discus throws.
For the ladies, Sara Huey PRd in the 100 Meter while Taylor Conklin did so in the 200 Meter race. The girls also competed well with Aspen Bloom finishing third in the mile run, Jaylen Ostenson was fifth in both the 100 Meter Hurdles and the discus, while Julie Morris was eighth in the long jump and ninth in the shot put.
“It was not a fun day in Douglas,” Ostenson sighed. “It was cold and windy all day so times were affected, but we still had some PRs on the day, so that was good.” 
On Monday, the weather was markedly improved as the team competed in Casper. More PRs were set as Scribner improved upon his PRs from Friday in both the long jump and the triple jump, Olson did so as well in the 800 Meter run, while Holden McConkey ran a personal best time with his eighth place finish in the 100 Meter race. Eli Morrill ran his personal best in the 110 Meter hurdles and jumped his best in the long jump. 
Conklin had another PR in the 200 Meter race while Bloom set a PR in the 2 mile. 
Though three 4A schools dominated the Casper meet, the Ostenson’s crew still competed well. Holden McConkey was eighth in both the 100 and 200 Meter races, CJ Hardy was third in the high jump, Morrill was eighth in the triple jump and Jacob Prell finished ninth in the shot put.
Jaylen Ostenson got to run the 300 hurdles but the event appears to be cursed. After a timing snafu in Wheatland forced a rerun of the grueling race, a similar situation played out in Casper. This time the girls ran 200 meters of the race when officials stopped them because of a problem with their timing system. They were given a rest of only about 15 minutes before rerunning the race where Ostenson finished sixth with a time of 51.33.
“It was really too bad, because that was shaping up to be a really good race,” coach Ostenson sighed. “Jaylen was hitting all her hurdles perfectly and she was on pace to finish with a qualifying time, but then when they reran it, everyone was slower because they didn’t get much time to rest and recuperate.”
Ostenson also finished fourth in the discus throw, while Bloom finished sixth in the 3200 Meter run.
“If we can keep upping the jumps and downing the times we’ll be in good shape,” Ostenson nodded. “We aren’t where we’ve been in past years because we’ve only run in four meets, but we should get where we need to be by Regionals.” 
The Dogies will head to Buffalo on Friday for the team competition and then Hardy and Coach Ostenson will go on to Casper for the Track Classic. Then the team will head to Custer next Tuesday for a meet there.