RANGELY I For the third year in a row, the Rangely boys’ track and field team has won the annual Panther Invitational, held on Yeager Field.
“Winning for a third year in a row is, of course, an amazing feeling and accomplishment,” Panther coach Cody Brunton said of his boys’ three-peat performance.
The Panthers were led by Colt Allred’s gold medal performances in the shot put and discus, recording personal bests in each event, with a put of 42-8 and a throw of 128-4.
Andrew Morton won the 110-meter hurdles and teammate Mitchell Webber was second. Morton also won the triple jump with a distance of 41-6.5 and Webber won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 45.60.
Connor Phelan finished second in the 400-meter dash with a personal best time of 52.31, only 0.4 seconds from the school record. Phelan also placed third in the 200 and fourth in the 100.
Ethan Allred had a personal best in the 800, completing two laps in 2:11.58, to win the event. Braxton Bishop also had a personal best in the 800 while Korey Hood and Troy Allred had personal bests in the discus and triple jump, respectively.
The Rangely girls team only had four team members compete, and coach Brunton commented on the efforts of Savannah Nielsen.
“Savannah not only did great in her usual events but she is our girls’’athlete of the week’for stepping up and doing very well in two events she has never tried before,” Brunton said of Nielsen’s participation in the long jump and shot put.
Senior Aimee Hogan placed second in the 200 and 400 with a personal best time of 1:03.44 and another personal best in the 100, where she finished fifth.
Coach Brunton was appreciative of the weather and the help at the track meet.
“The weather was wonderful and we had a ton of volunteer workers made up of parents, teachers and other community members,” Brunton said. “All did a wonderful job of helping us all day, and our athletes did a great job.”
The Panthers will compete in Craig on Friday and help the Rangely Middle School track team host a meet Saturday.