Meeker athletes bring home nine state medals

MEEKER I This year’s state track meet showcased some state records, the introduction of disabled athlete events and very strong winds on Saturday. Meeker kids qualified in 11 events and placed 17th out of the 100 plus schools in the 2A division.
Kathryn Doll was very busy running in preliminaries and long jumping on Thursday. She made the finals of the 100-dash and placed sixth overall on Saturday.
Timing was hard on her on Thursday when she had to run the 100 prelims in the middle of her long jump competition; she was unable to take run-throughs to check her steps. She ended up jumping 15-8 (not her best) and placed fifth. She competed much better Saturday in the triple jump, improving each jump, going 34-7.75 to place second. Doll was 10th in the 200 dash, just missing the finals.
The boys also had a rough day in preliminaries: The 4×200 relay of Toby Casias, Colton Brown, Jared Frantz and Jake Nieslanik had a couple of poor handoffs and missed the finals.
The quad of Nieslanik, Jared Frantz, Pat Love and Brock Campbell just missed making the finals in the 4×400. The bright spot Thursday was the 4×100 relay of Casias, Brown, Ryan Wix and Nieslanik who made it through to finals seeded seventh overall. On Saturday they ran a nearly flawless race and placed fourth in a season-best time of 44.16.
Casias placed 10th in the 100 dash, just missing the finals in a very strong field. Wix, who threw 123-0 at regionals in the discus, scratched on all of his efforts at state but was a major point earner for the Cowboys this season.
Senior Colton Brown had to contend with very strong winds Saturday morning in the high jump and manage to get over 6-2 for fifth place.
Campbell knew he had to push the pace in the 800 but took off a bit too fast, running the first lap in 55 seconds; he led all runners with 300 meters to go when the pack attacked. Campbell placed ninth in the race, where four runners were at 2:00 or faster.
Congratulations to the five seniors who have competed in track for four years: Campbell, Brown, Love, Timbre Shriver and Jarrett Waldreff.