Kemmerer Ranger Andres Vega runs the 800-meter run at the Evanston Invite on Wednesday, April 18. (COURTESY PHOTO / Joseph Platt)

The Kemmerer Ranger track team competed at the Evanston Invite on Wednesday, April 18 and at Morgan, Utah, on Saturday, April 21.

The squad continued to post personal best times in several events, and a few more athletes pre-qualified for the state meet in Casper.

Evanston Invite

The Evanston meet was a gathering of southwest Wyoming teams from Evanston, Lyman, Mountain View, Kemmerer and Big Piney, and the Rangers held their own in several events. Kenley Plowman’s second place time of 63.81 seconds in the 400-meter dash punched her ticket to the state meet. 

Jeydon Boyd also pre-qualified for state with a second-place shotput throw of 44 feet 11 inches. Anthony Tibbetts pre-qualified in the same event at the Lyman meet with his throw of 44 feet 7 inches, and the duo are poised to make some noise in Casper. Tibbetts added a fourth-place finish in the boys’ shotput.

Teryn Thatcher placed first in the triple jump with a leap of 31 feet 10 inches. Kenley Plowman placed third in the event. Tanner Plowman placed second in the boys’ triple jump.

Marisa Orcutt and Katie Zuniga placed third and fourth in the 100-meter dash. Orcutt also placed third in the 200-meter dash. Sophie Failoni placed third in the the 3200-meter run and Sydnie Julander placed third in the high jump.  Failoni and Julander also placed fourth and fifth in the 800-meter run. Andres Vega placed third in the boys’ 3200-meter run.

Sophie Failoni and Sydnie Julander run the 800 at the Evanston Invite. (COURTESY PHOTO / Joseph Platt) 

In the boys’ discus, Anthony Tibbetts placed fourth and Jeydon Boyd placed fifth. Tanner Plowman finished sixth in the long jump, and Brooklyn Hagler earned sixth place in the 300-meter hurdles.

Zach Jackson added points for the Rangers with seventh-place finishes in both hurdle events. TC Coles placed seventh in the 400-meter dash. Coles placed eighth in the high jump, and Vega finished eighth in the mile.

Teryn Thatcher placed first in the triple jump at the Evanston Invite. (COURTESY PHOTO / Joseph Platt) 

Finishing just out of the scoring were Oscar Zhang in the 100-meter dash, Sydnie Julander in the 800-meter run, Jacob Rily in the 400-meter dash, Jillian Tibbetts in the discus, Brayden Dearden in the 400-meter dash, Callie Bosch in the shotput and Grady Killian in the 400-meter dash.

The girls 4x100 meter relay team of Hagler, Tibbetts, Zuniga and Orcutt ran the distance in 54.38 seconds, a time that would have placed fourth at state last year. The girls 4x800 meter relay team of Sammi Butler, Failoni, Thatcher and Plowman ran 11 minutes 16.71 seconds, which also would have placed fourth at state last year.

Morgan

The weather was pleasant, but the competition was fierce at the April 21 meet in Morgan, Utah.

Besides the Utah schools at the meet, Kemmerer competed against track teams from Rock Springs, Green River, Mountain View and Farson-Eden.

The highlight of the day was watching North Summit High School senior Sadie Sargent set a new Utah state record in the mile by scorching the track in 4 minutes 50.04 seconds. The Rangers managed to score enough points to finish twentieth out of the twenty-six teams at the meet.

Jeydon Boyd led the scoring for the Rangers by placing seventh in the shotput and eighth in the discus out of 65 competitors.  Anthony Tibbetts placed seventh in the discus and ninth in the shotput.

Louis Failoni placed seventh in the 3200-meter run with a personal best time of 10 minutes 27.60 seconds, fourth best in Kemmerer history.

Tanner Plowman placed eighth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 53.44 seconds, a personal record. His time ranks in the top 15 marks in Kemmerer history for the event.

Kenley Plowman ranked in the top 10 in Kemmerer history for both the 400-meter and 800-meter dashes with her times at the meet but did not place.

Brooklynn Hagler scorched the track in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 52.27 seconds, which narrowly missed a personal record and state prequalification. She remains ranked in the top ten long-distance hurdlers in Kemmerer history.

Brooklynn Hagler runs the 300-meter hurdles at the Evanston Invite. (COURTESY PHOTO / Joseph Platt) 

Freshman Marisa Orcutt narrowly missed prequalifying in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes with times of 13.60 and 28.06 seconds. She placed eighteenth in both events among a field of more than 90 competitors. Her times move her into the top 10 fastest marks in Kemmerer history in both events.

Sophie Failoni’s time in the 3200-meter run and Sydnie Julander’s recent high jumps move the freshmen into the top 15 in Kemmerer history for the events.

Freshmen Zach Jackson and Andres Vega set marks in the 110-meter hurdles and 3200-meter run, respectively, that rank in the top 20 in Kemmerer history.

The boys’ 1600-meter sprint medley relay team of Cameron Adams, Austin Quin Martinez, Tanner Plowman and Louis Failoni covered the mile in 4 minutes 2.36 seconds.  Their time ranks second in Kemmerer history only to the record of 3:52.8 seconds set by Jim Brown, Larry Capellen, Eddie Georges and Bill Little in 1966.

The girls’ 1600-meter sprint medley relay team of Katie Zuniga, Jillian Tibbets, Marisa Orcutt and Kenley Plowman ran 4 minutes 50.13 seconds. Their finish ranks second in Kemmerer history only to the record of 4:49.40 set by Abby Brunski, Kayla Kahre,  Rexanna Kelly and Makenzi Crittenden in 2015.

The Kemmerer Rangers track team competed at the Dave Draney Invite in Star Valley yesterday. Results were not available at press time.

The Rangers host a track meet at home in Kemmerer on Saturday, April 28.