Panthers compete in Hotchkiss

RANGELY I The Rangely Panthers track and field team found themselves at the first annual North Fork Invitational in Hotchkiss, Colorado last weekend. It was a smaller meet than the week before with 12 teams. Both the girls and boys teams placed fourth overall. The team made some great improvements as they felt more confident in their events and what to expect at the meets. 

Most of the Rangely athletes are not just throwers, or jumpers or runners, but will have field events as well as running events. With this being a smaller meet many of the athletes found themselves having to make a jump or throw and then go do a running event then come back to finish their field event.  Doing more than one type of event can be very stressful at the  times but helps the athlete to learn how to deal with stressful situations and learn to handle pressure.” said Coach Beth Scoggins.

Senior Timothy Scoggins is one of those athletes that does many different events. In Hotchkiss he threw the shot (35-8.75), placing second; high jump (5-8), placing third; ran the 200-meter dash (26.53); and helped the 4×400. Sophomore Annika Cantrell did close to the same thing, throwing the discus (63-1.5); high jump (4-8) placing fifth; 200-meter dash (31.65);  and helped the 4×200.  

Athletes who throw and run are Joseph Adams, Mackenzie Manchester and Laurie Ward. Adams threw the discus (62-7), ran the 1,600 (6:00.84) and the 800-meter run (2:42.06). Manchester threw the discus (73-10.75), shot (24-4.25) and ran the 100 hurdles (23.65). Ward ran the 100 dash (18.75), 200 dash (40.61) and threw the discus (41-5.25). 

Athletes that jump and run include Mary Scoggins, Andrew Dorris, Kevin Wren, Emma Smith, Katsyn Dembowski, Ryann Mergelman, Justin Allred, Miah Wren and Clay Allred. Mary Scoggins long jumped (16-7.7), placing second; triple jumped (34-1), placing second; and ran the 800 run (2:29.88), placing second. Dorris high jumped (5-6), placing fourth; ran the 800 (2:09.75) placing first; and the 1,600 (4:55. 89) placing second. Kevin Wren long jumped (14-10), triple jumped (30-11), and ran the 200 dash (28.09). Smith long jumped (13-6.5), placing seventh; triple jumped (29-4.7), placing ninth; and ran the 100 dash (15.05).  Dembowski ran the 100 dash (15.41); high jumped (4-4), placing eighth; and long jumped (13-1.5), placing eighth. Mergelman ran the 200 dash (32.15), long jumped (11-11.5) and triple jumped (27-6). Justin Allred long jumped (14-02), triple jumped (28-02) and ran the 400 (1:05.5).  Miah Wren triple jumped (30-2.5) and helped two relays. Clay Allred long jumped (14-5.5), triple jumped (32-0.5) and ran the 800 (2:25.90).

The throwing athletes this season include Brooke Filfred, Rylee Allred, Kyrah Phelps and Kenyon Cochran. Filfred threw shot (23-2.5) and discus (75-7.5). Rylee Allred threw shot (29-6.5) placing seventh, and the discus (90-10.5) placing sixth. Phelps placed sixth in shot (29-8.25) and eighth in discus (88-4.75). Cochran threw the shot for sixth place (32-9.25) and took second place in discus (129-11).  

The jumping athletes are Fisher Winder and Anthony Dorris. Winder long jumped (17-5.75) for fourth place and triple jumped (36-2.5) for another fourth place. Dorris long jumped (16-1.7) for eighth place.

The running athletes are Hayley Burr, Colton Noel, Macy Morgan and James Talbot.  Burr is a hurdler and ran the 100 hurdles (18.87) and 300 hurdles (52.38), placing fourth in both events. She also ran the 100 dash (13.90) taking sixth place. Noel decided at this meet to run all the long events: 400 dash (1:03.53), 800 run (2:36.85), 1,600 run (5:42) and the 3,200 run (13:06.49). Talbot ran the 800 run (2:16.06) placing fourth, 1,600 run (5:23) placing seventh and the 3,200 run (12:26.34) placing second.  

The boys only put together one relay team, the 4×400 made up of Timothy Scoggins, Clay Allred, Kevin Wren and Andrew Dorris. They placed third with a time of 3:58.65. The girls put together two relay teams: 4×200 and the 4×400. The 4×200 was made up of Miah Wren, Mergelman, Cantrell and Dembowski. They placed sixth with a time of 2:01.41. The 4×400 consisted of Burr, Smith, Miah Wren and Mary Scoggins placed third with a time of 4:34.87.

The Panthers have a big week ahead of them. The freshman, sophomore and first year track athletes will be competing in a JV meet on Monday, April 28 at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction. This weekend they will be traveling to Meeker for the Cowboy Invite on Friday and then on Saturday heading to Cedaredge for the Bruin Invitational.  

“It is hard to compete in back-to-back meets, but it helps us to prepare for state when we are competing over multiple days,” coach Scoggins said. 

Special to the Herald Times