SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. – The Lingle-Fort Laramie High School track and field team had many strong performances at the season-opening Binfield Invite last Friday.
Slade Hopkins and Sully Wilson set the bar high for the remainder of the season, running times which rank in the top five in school history in their respective events.
Hopkins time of 51.26 seconds in the 400-meter dash and his time of 22.95 seconds in the 200-meter dash both ranked fifth fastest all-time in school history, while Wilson 10 minutes, 50.19 seconds in in 3,200-meter run was also fifth fastest in school history.
Hopkins’ time in the 400-meter dash topped the field of 20 other runners taking part in the event. It was the team’s only individual win of the day in a meet which featured four additional teams in North Platte (Nebraska), Scottsbluff, Gordon-Rushville (Nebraska) and Torrington.
As a whole, the Doggers and Lady Doggers had nine individuals in 12 events prequalify for May’s state meet in Casper, along with a trio of relays.
“Overall, I was very pleased with what we saw on Friday,” LFL coach Mike Lashley said. “We had some solid performances for this early in the season. I was a little surprised by the number of events that we were able to attain prequalifying marks in. The qualifying marks in 2A are a bit more difficult to reach than in 1A, so to attain qualifying marks in seven girls’ events and seven boys’ events the first track meet of the year is very encouraging.”
The list of prequalification’s include: Maddy Saul (100-meter dash), Emma Walker (100 hurdles and 300 hurdles), Skyla Wunder (high jump), Hallie Fuller (pole vault), Slade Hopkins (200 and 400-meter dashes), Myles Wilson (3,200-meter run), Sully Wilson (3,200-meter run), Louden Bremer (300 hurdles) and Boyd Oliver (shot put and discus). The relays include the girls’ 4x400 relay (Emma Walker, Jordynn Speckner, Grace Gibson and Hallie Fuller), girls’ 4x800 relay (Hadley Wilkins, Holly Leiseth, Hailey Smith, Anna Frederick) and the boys’ 4x100 relay (Nolan Spears, Louden Bremer, Skyler Thomas, Slade Hopkins).
“Our younger athletes seemed to adjust well to competition at a higher level,” Lashley said. “We have the makings of a good team, but we still have quite a bit of work to do the next few weeks. Our training cycle will ramp up some now, and hopefully, the weather allows us to really focus in on our technique events.”
Lingle also had several runner-up finishes including Hopkins in the 200, Myles Wilson in the 1,600, Sully Wilson in the 3,200, the boys’ 4x100 relay team of Spears, Bremer, Thomas and Hopkins, the 4x400 team of Braydon Posten, Brody Roberts, Cooper Smith and Thomas, Natalie Speckner in the 1,600, Walker in the 300 hurdles and Izzy Spears in discus.
No team scores were kept at the meet.
On Saturday, LFL heads to the Bayard (Nebraska) CD Invite. Action gets underway at 9 a.m.
“We are excited to go to Bayard this week, where we will see some very stiff competition,” Lashley said. “If you score well at the Bayard CD Invite, then you usually have a pretty good track team. It will be fun to see how we stack up.”
