Bulldog thinclads power to Powell Invitational title

Sporting a full team for the first time this season, the Lovell Bulldog boys dominated the L.A. Kohnke Invitational in Powell Saturday.

“We had our team there,” head coach Joshua Sander said. “Our boys were awesome. They really showed they’re a pretty good group.”

Lovell racked up 150.5 points to win the meet by 48 points over Cody, who tallied 102.5 points. Powell placed third with 78.5 points, followed by Lander with 73.5 points, Thermopolis 73 points, Riverton 67 points and Worland 63 points in the 12-team field.

Matthew Newman was named the male athlete of the week, Sander said. The talented junior won or was part of winning three events, and he placed second in a fourth event.

Newman won and qualified for State in both hurdles races, running his familiar 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 40.04 and the 110-meter high hurdles – his first time ever in a meet – in 16.13.

“That’s a great time, and he’ll drop that time even more as he becomes familiar with the event,” Sanders said of Newman’s run in the 110 hurdles. “It’s not a PR in the 300s, but it’s still a really good time. He’s off to a fantastic start in all of his events.”

The team of Hunter Krei, Gavin Robertson, Newman and Owen Walker appeared to be in peak form already, winning the 400-meter relay in 43.93, just 3/10s of a second off the school record set last season at State, easily qualifying for State.

“That’s a very good time,” Sanders confirmed.

Krei, a freshman, placed fourth in the 200-meter dash in a time of 24.11, and running in a different heat, senior Robertson placed fifth in 24.13, junior Jacob Thomas sixth in 24.44, a personal record.

Thomas won the 400 meters, rounding the oval in 53 seconds, a personal record.

“He’s been working on his speed and has been able to get a good mix of speed work and endurance work,” Sanders noted.

Freshman Anthony Garcia was strong in the 100-meter dash, finishing 11th out of 107 runners in a time of 11.99. Walker placed 13th in 12.03 (PR), senior Jaxon Pluhar 14th in 12.05.

In field events, Walker easily won the high jump at 6-6 and had a good attempt at 6-9, which would have been school record, Sanders said. He also won the triple jump, qualifying for State with a jump of 42-6.

“This was his first meet, so he’s looking good right out of the gate,” Sanders said.

Robertson won the long jump, hitting the sand at 21-1 to qualify for State. Newman was second at 20-3¼. Sophomore Nate Cornia placed seventh in the triple jump, hitting the pit in 36-11½.

Senior Taggart Shumway led a trio of strong pole vaulters by placing second with a personal-record vault of 13 feet. Owen Edwards placed third at 11-6, Talon Burton fourth at 11-0.

“That was great to see,” Sanders said of Shumway’s personal record. “He’s worked really hard in the pole vault over the years, and going forward he’s having a great senior season. It’s been nice to have (coach) Colten Galambas helping there. All three of our pole vaulters are performing well.”

Robertson placed sixth in the high jump, Jaxon Pluhar seventh and Kaeson Anderson ninth, each at 5-6 but placing based on the number of misses.

Junior Halen Strom had an outstanding meet in the throws. He won the discus with a toss of 134-1, and he placed second in the shot put with a throw of 46-4. Sophomore Tazz McArthur threw a personal record 125-2 in the discus to place second, and junior Brody Muller was third in the shot put at 42-6 ½, a personal record.

“Halen is proving that he’s a strong, consistent thrower,” Sanders said. “Tazz got second on one of his last throws, which launched him up there (in the order of finish). That was a fantastic throw for him. Coach (AJ) Montanez has isolated some things that would help him, and on that particular throw he did what Coach Montanez wanted.”

Other boys results in Powell were:

100m dash – Nate Cornia 21st, 12.14 (PR), Parker Steenbakkers 36th, 12.34; Brody Muller 48th, 12.53 (PR), Wilson Hendershot 62nd, 12.80 (PR), Taggart Shumway 67th, 12.93, Jett Hessenthaler 73rd, 13.06, Jarrett Allen 80th, 13.14 (PR), Karson Seitz 84th, 13.28 (PR), Kelvin Robertson 98th, 13.94; 200m dash – Jaxon Pluhar 15th, 25.27; 800 meters – Gabe Buchholz 20th, 2:37.79, Cutler Wilkerson 21st, 2:39.82; 1,600 meters – Stetson Asay 13th, 5:11.57; long jump –Hendershot 10th, 18-2, Cornia 14th, 17-9, Steenbakkers 19th, 17-2½, Anthony Garcia 24th, 16-11, Hunter Krei 27th, 16-9¾, Kaeson Anderson 29th, 16-8, Allen 32nd, 16-5¼, Jaxon Pluhar 33rd, 16-4½, Seitz 38th, 16-1¼, Kelvin Robertson 50th, 12-8½; triple jump – Allen 12th, 35-11¼; shot put – Braxton Felkins 23rd, 35-7½, Grant Hill 27th, 35-1½, Tazz McArthur 31st, 34-1, Hessenthaler 32nd, 33-9½, Sam Cordova 52nd, 28-8, Gage Pillow 68th, 21-1; discus – Felkins 12th, 106-3, Hill 26th, 97-4, Dean Anderson 27th, 94-10 (PR), Cordova 35th, 84-5, Pillow 53rd, 66-5.

Girls results

Coaches named freshman Avery Walker as the female athlete of the week. Walker placed second in the triple jump, hitting 34-3 in her first high school competition and edging twin sister Ali, who placed third at 33-7. Both qualified for State in the event. Avery also placed sixth in the long jump at 14-11½, Ali seventh at 14-11¼.

“Avery has really good triple jump form,” Sanders said. “She would have gone even further but was a little bit fatigued. Because she’s so young we’ll have to find what else she’s good at , but that (triple jump), for sure, she’s good at.”

The Walker sisters were also members of the third-place 400-meter relay team that, according to sprint coach Josey Allen, included junior Becca Nichols and sophomore Kandace Asay.

Nichols had a strong meet. Besides the 400-meter relay, she placed fourth in both the 100- and 200-meter dash, running the 100 in 13.20, a personal record, and 200 in 28.21. She also placed sixth in the long jump at 15-5.

“That was a great sprinting day for Becca,” Sanders said.

Sophomore Jenna Hessenthaler placed eighth in the 800 meters in a time of 2:40.31, a personal record, and freshman Addie Weber placed eighth in the 3,200 meters with a time of 15:58.78, sophomore Candace Walker ninth in 16:27.65.

Sophomore Brooklin Clark ran the hurdles for the first time this season and placed eighth in the 100-meter intermediate hurdles in 17.92 and ninth in the 300-meter low hurdles in 52.53. Sanders said Clark is “getting back in form for the hurdles.” Clark also placed eighth in the long jump, hitting the sand at 14-9.

The 1,600-meter relay team of Hessenthaler, Asay, Elana Schilthuis and Caylee Herman placed fifth in 4:37.57.

In the jumps, sophomore Hannity Felkins placed fifth in the triple jump with a jump of 30-8 ¾, and Candace Walker finished ninth at 28-9. Asay placed sixth in the high jump, clearing 4-5.

The Lovell girls placed sixth in Powell with 54.5 points.

Other girls results in Powell were:

100m dash – Ali Walker 16th, 14.01, Avery Walker 21st, 14.20, Kandace Asay 26th, 14.38, Jaycie Allen 34th, 14.79, Claire Shumway 57th, 16.78; 200m dash – Shumway 36th, 36.15; 1,600 meters – Elana Schilthuis 18th, 6:20.82 (PR); long jump – Allen 11th, 14-7½, Hannity Felkins 16th, 14-1¼, Ava Edwards 17th, 14-1, Shumway 20th, 13-4¼; shot put – Felkins 11th, 27-7½, Christina Zollman 17th, 26-2½, Caitlyn Allen 44th, 19-2½, Brezhae Espinoza 50th, 14-8; discus – Zollman 22nd, 73-8 (PR), Allen 37th, 64-2, Espinoza 50th, 39-1.

The Worland meet that had been scheduled for Thursday was moved to Tuesday, April 15, with bad weather predicted for Thursday. Look for results in next week’s Chronicle.

The Rocky Mountain Invitational follows in Cowley on Saturday, April 26. The Lovell Invitational is scheduled for Friday, May 2.