Panthers bring home new school record from state meet

RANGELY | The Rangely Panthers sent six athletes to the CHSAA state track and field meet this past weekend. The team as well as other teams had to deal with bad weather which led to a two day delay in the meet. The Panthers left Wednesday for the meet and then found out on Thursday, the first day of the meet, that the meet was going to be postponed until Saturday. Instead of a three-day meet with prelims and finals they condensed the meet to a two-day meet with everything run as finals. For field events the athletes were allowed four attempts and no finals.
“It was not an ideal situation for the athletes but we made the best of it,” said head coach Beth Scoggins.
For the two extra days in Denver the Panthers went bowling, to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and to the movies. They played games in the evening when there was down time. At the museum there was a special exhibit on the Vikings.
With the delay some of the events were held Sunday, conflicting with Rangely’s graduation. Lindzey

Thacker had to make a very tough decision whether she was going to stay and compete in the high jump and 400-meter dash or go back to graduation where she was the co-valedictorian. After talking with friends and family she decided to head back to Rangely where she would give her speech and spend time with out-of-town relatives. She stayed in Denver through Saturday to support the athletes who competed.
Troy Allred, senior, started the state meet for the Panthers in triple jump. He had four good attempts with his best being 39-01 which had him placing 13th. Sophomore Marshall Webber, was able to run the 300 hurdles. He didn’t get a personal record in the race but he moved up in positions of were he was going in at. He was ranked 18th but was able to get a 13th place. He ran a smooth race and was relaxed his time was a 44.02. Patrick Scoggins was the next one up on the track in the 200-meter dash. The race was a close one but he was able to pull out a fourth place with a new personal record of 22.88. Katelyn Brown was the next competitor in triple jump. She also had four good jumps with her best being 33-6.25 for a seventh place. With graduation on Sunday and several needing to get back the bus returned home, leaving Austin Ficken and Patrick Scoggins to compete on Sunday and Sarah Connor to cheer them on.
Scoggins started Sunday for the Panthers in the 800-meter run. It was a very fast race with lots of good competition. He was able to set a new school record and get second place with a time of 1:56.77. Then after a couple of hours of rest he went for the 400-meter dash. Once again he was able to place second with a time of 50.36 just barely missing first place. Austin Ficken was the last Rangely competitor for the state meet throwing shot put. Ficken went in the ring knowing what he had to do and did a great job. He placed 10th, just barely missing the podium. He was able to get four good throws in with his best being a 42-01.5.
The Panthers had a great year and will bring four of the state qualifiers back next year. They are hoping to add more to their team and look forward to taking more to the state meet next year.