— Scoggins, Ficken, Phelan lead Panther tracksters —
The RHS Panthers track and field season is off to a great start. Team captains are junior William Scoggins and sophomores Chelsea Ficken and Connor Phelan. The team’s first meet took place in Hotchkiss Saturday, March 24 with personal best times, distances and heights achieved.
Some of the Hotchkiss Invitational highlights included sophomore Tessa Slagle scoring sixth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 14:51.09, sophomore Chelsea Ficken taking fifth place in the triple jump with a jump of 29-09.75, sophomore Connor Phelan placing seventh in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.22, and sophomore Andrew Morton taking sixth place in the high jump with a height of 5-06.00 and taking third in the triple jump with a personal record [PR] of 40-02.50. Junior Holly Lepro took eighth place in the shot put throwing 30-00.00, and junior William Scoggins placed second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:58.76, and stepped up to win the 3200 run with a time of 10:57.73
Many of the lower classmen were able to get their times and distances on the board so they now have a more defined goal to beat. All of the coaches were pleased with the performance of all the athletes who participated in their first track meet of 2012. The final meet scores out of 16 teams were the girl’s team placing 13th place and the boys placing ninth.
The Panthers competed at the Warrior Invitational in Grand Junction on March 30. The ladies, only having four full-time athletes, were able to have a relay team with dual-sport athlete Leslie Hernandez, who competes in both soccer and track. They got fourth place in the sprint medley with a time of 2:13.54. Their relay team included Leslie Hernandez and Chelsea Ficken running 100 meters, Aimee Hogan running 200 meters, and Tessa Slagle anchoring the team with a 400 meter run.
Freshman Mitchell Webber stepped up in the 110-meter hurdles and placed eighth with a time of 20.72. Sophomore Aimee Hogan took eighth place in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:33.16 and sixth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:50.44. Junior William Scoggins received his PR in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:47.17 for second and the 800 run with a time of 2:10.93 for seventh place.
In the 4×100 meter relay, runners Connor Phelan, DJ Jamerson, Andrew Morton and Colton Coombs achieved their first time as a relay team with 47.06 to place fourth. Connor Phelan ran a 55.20 in his 400-meter dash and took seventh. Chelsea Ficken earned herself two PR’s in the 200-meter dash with a seventh place 30.21 and fifth place in the triple jump with a distance of 30-03.25. Runners Ethan Allred, Tanner Nielsen, Dale Nielsen and William Scoggins ran the 4×400 meter relay for a second time this year and took about seven seconds off their time. They placed sixth overall with a time of 4:11.26. Andrew Morton took second place in the triple jump with a distance of 40-02.75. He also took second place in the high jump with a height of 5-10.00. Holly Lepro took sixth in the shot put with a distance of 32-03.75 (PR) and fifth place in the discus with a distance of 97-07, also a PR. The final team rankings out of nine teams were the girls taking ninth place and the boys taking seventh place.
“These athletes continue to surprise me with their hard work and high standards for themselves. I have no doubt in my mind that school records will be broken this year and more athletes will be present at the state track meet than last year,” said coach Steph Kahler. All the coaches are impressed and proud of this year’s team.
