Rocky Mountain Grizzlies finish regular season at Thermopolis meet

Moss achieves rare feat by surpassing state qualifying standards in four events at one meet

Featuring a mix of 1A, 2A and 3A schools from across Wyoming, last Friday’s evening meet in Thermopolis drew a large and competitive field of 21 teams and gave athletes one final opportunity to compete before this weekend’s regional meet.

Rocky Mountain High School athletes earned several top-10 finishes during the meet, with the girls squad led by Sawyer Bassett’s third-place finish in the triple jump at 33-5.25. Bassett also placed ninth in the long jump with a leap of 14-10. Avery Thomas added a pair of top-10 finishes, as well, taking sixth in the triple jump at 31-7.5 and 10th in the long jump at 14-8.

Leah Haslem turned in Rocky Mountain’s top individual finish on the track for the girls, placing 10th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:08.87. Haslem also played a key role on the girls sprint medley relay team alongside Thomas, Keylee Christiansen and Bailey Gifford as the quartet placed fifth in 4:55.94.

Head coach Tobee Christiansen also highlighted the progress of Haslem this season.

“Leah has been pushing herself all year. The 400 might be her sweet spot as far as races go,” Christiansen said.

For the boys, Mason Moss continued to lead the Grizzlies with four top-10 finishes. Moss placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.56, seventh in the 200-meter dash in 23.13, ninth in the 100-meter dash in 11.59 and sixth in the high jump after clearing 5-9. His effort in each event was better than the state qualifying standard.

Coach Christiansen added that, “In every meet Mason continues to show how talented he is across a wide range of events.”

Rocky Mountain also received top-10 performances from Rowan Hanusa, who tied for 10th in the pole vault at 9-6, and Cooper Winland, who placed eighth in the shot put with a personal best throw of 40-7.

The Grizzly throwers continued to show impressive depth in the throwing events in Thermopolis.

Throwing coach Pat Winland praised his group, saying, “Cooper and Kellan (Jackson) are currently in the top 8 in 2A west, and if they throw to their potential they should go in the shot. Alex (Walker) is just outside the top nine. In the discus we have Kellan, Evin (Clendenen) and John (Mader) currently fighting for position. They will have to rise to the occasion if they want to make it to state and throw three consistent marks at Regionals.”

Other discus marks for the meet included Jackson at 116-0, Mader at 113-6, Walker at 105-0 and Winland at 97-0. In the shot put, Jackson recorded a throw of 37-7, Walker reached 36-5, Paul Shetler added 31-6 and Mader finished at 31-0.

Rocky Mountain will now turn its attention to the 2A West Regional Track and Field Meet at Shoshoni High School on Friday and Saturday this week. Field events are scheduled to begin at noon, with running events starting at 1:45 p.m. with the 800-meter run.

Christiansen acknowledged that while a handful of Grizzlies have already qualified for the state meet, he expects several more athletes to earn spots this weekend.

“I feel like we should have a fair chunk of our team that qualifies,” Christiansen said.

Other Lady Grizz performances included Bailey Gifford in the 100-meter dash (14.14), 200-meter dash (30.22) and long jump (12-6.75); Evynn Alvarez in the 100-meter dash (16.53), 200-meter dash (35.66), 1,600 meter run (7:21.45), and long jump (8-11); and Ellie Alvarez in the 1,600 meter run (7:40.70) and long jump (6-7).

Other boys performances included Cooper Ward in the 100-meter dash (11.85) and long jump (17-11.75); Jaxx May in the 100-meter dash (12.22) and 800-meter run (2:20.06); Cache Thompson in the 100-meter dash (12.78) and long jump (17-1.5); Rowan Hanusa in the 200-meter dash (27.78); Zach Unruh in the 400-meter dash (1:00.31) and long jump (15-11); and Cameron Minchow in the long jump (16-2).