By Patrick Scoggins
Special to the Herald Times
RBC | Friday, March 30, the Rangely Panther track and field team took a short drive east to compete in the first high school meet hosted on Meeker’s new track. Despite a small number of teams competing, the athletes scorched around the track and ripped through the rings.
The Rangely throwers started the day off with strong performances in both the shot put and discus. Austin Ficken won the shot put with a new personal best of 44 feet, 3.25 inches and finished third in discus with a throw of 124-10. Riley Boydstun also placed in both shot put and discus with throws of 35-10.25 and 110-11, respectively, good enough for seventh place finishes in each. Breanna Davis led a high scoring affair for the lady Panthers in the shot put ring with a throw of 30-1.5 for third place, followed by Makenze Cochrane with 29-3 in fifth place and Miekka Peck with 29-0.75 in sixth place. Cochrane and Peck also placed in the discus with throws reaching 98-8 (third place) and 88-4 (sixth place), respectively. More nice throws came from Elena Forbes, Anna Forbes, Brady Bertoch and Cameron Filfred. Gabe Polley, who is showing great signs of being an all-around athlete as a freshman, threw the discus for the first time along with competing as Rangely’s only jumper in the high jump.
The lady Panthers’ 800-meter sprint medley relay was the first running event on the track. Finishing third in 2 minutes 10.53 seconds was the quartet of Miekka Peck, Makenze Cochrane, Dixie Rhea and RaeLynn Norman. Rhea also ran the 100-meter in 14.71 seconds and shocked several people as she finished fourth in the 400-meter with a time of 1:11.53 despite being in the first heat. Norman cruised to a new personal best of 13:39.73 as she finished fourth in the 3,200-meter. Chloe Filfred ran two tough races in the 800 and 1,600-meter, managing a new season best in the 1,600 with a time of 7:34.23. Anna Forbes, Elena Forbes and Breanna Davis also competed in the 100 along with their throws.
The boys’ side welcomed back Brennan Noyes as he made his track season debut in the 100 alongside Brady Bertoch and Patrick Scoggins. Scoggins finished third in the 100 and was quickly followed by Marshall Webber’s impressive second place in the 110 high hurdles with a time of 18.16. Scoggins also won the 400 and 200 with times of 50.73 and 23.85, respectively. Gabe Polley ran the 200-meter as well as helped the 4×400-meter relay of Webber, Noyes, and Scoggins drop more time as they finished fifth in 4:04.97.
At the end of the day the team got to enjoy a short bus ride home before their 5 a.m. departure for Cedaredge the next morning. Despite the very early morning, long bus ride and tired legs from the tough competition Friday, the Panthers proved to be a good track and field club as they continued to pour out good marks/times on a hot, smoky Saturday in Cedaredge.
Marshall Webber and Gabe Polley sprinted towards good times in the 100 and 200. Polley was once again the team’s only jumper as he competed in both the high jump and long jump. Webber then continued his strong hurdling performances with a fourth place finish in the 300 hurdles with a season best 45.51. While sticking to sprints on Friday, Patrick Scoggins was set for more distance on Saturday. Scoggins finished second in the 1,600 with a personal best of 4:42.69 and a fourth place finish in the 800.
Dixie Rhea and RaeLynn Norman gutted out nice performances in the 400 with times of 1:11 and 1:13.40, respectively. Rhea also ran the 100 again, this time sprinting to a 14.86. Norman went from distance running to working speed on Saturday, as she also ran the 200 for the first time in 32.63.
Just as the throwers started the weekend off with great throws, the Panthers wrapped up their competition watching the throwers continue to dominate. Makenze Cochrane and Miekka Peck gained new personal bests in the shot put with heaves of 31-4.75 and 29-10.5, respectively, for fourth and fifth place. Breanna Davis also finished ninth with a throw of 29-5.25 in the shot put. Cochrane and Peck again placed in the discus in third and seventh with throws of 98-1 and 88-0, respectively. Anna Forbes threw a new personal best in the discus with a throw of 62-9 as her sister Elena Forbes threw a 64-8. Davis competed in the discus as well and both the Forbes’ also threw the shot put. Austin Ficken and Riley Boydstun picked up right where they left off from the Meeker meet. Ficken won the discus in personal best fashion of 135-8 and was second in the shot put with a throw of 43-3.5. Boydstun finished eighth in both shot put and discus with throws of 37-0.25 and 109-2, respectively, with his shot put also being a new personal best.
The weekend proved to be quite the workout for the small, talented Panthers as they were tested each day in several different events with some of the best competition on the Western Slope. The Panthers send the JV squad to Glenwood on Tuesday to gain further experience while the rest of the team waits until Saturday, April 7, to compete at the Frank Woodburn Invitational in Grand Junction.
