Track season begins at Lovell Middle School with strong results

Lovell Middle School has begun their track season for the spring.

Coaches this year are Marci Durtsche for high jump, hurdles and sprints, April Nicholls for the horizontal jumps, Kenneth Mayes for the throws and Collin McArthur for the mid and long distances.

 The team’s first meet was originally supposed to be in Powell on April 2, but after poor weather led to cancellation, the coaches put together an alternate way to get the middle schoolers meet ready.

“We felt like it’d still be good for a lot of our sixth graders and new seventh graders to experience somewhat what the meet would look like before we got there,” head coach McArthur explained.

McArthur went on to say that they organized a “mock meet” for the athletes. He noted that it was a good opportunity for athletes to get an idea of what they could improve as well as try out some events they were interested in changing.

“Parents were very supportive,” McArthur said. “We’re very impressed with all the parents that were willing to help out at the track and do things for us.”

The first official meet for the middle school was last Friday, April 10. The Bulldogs participated in the Spartan Invite in Riverton.

“We had 20 other schools we competed against,” McArthur said. “Some events had up to 180 kids in it, and our kids for the most part were in the average or the top end of the pack.”

Lovell eighth grade boys results (top ten) were:

800 medley- seventh; high jump- Bradley Mickelson fourth; long jump- Mickelson 10th; discus- Landon Asay ninth, Landen Peterson 10th; shot put- Peterson 10th.

The eighth-grade girls came out in fifth place against the 20 other teams. 

“The only ones in our conference they were behind were Cody and Powell, with them being about double our size. it was awesome,” McArthur remarked.

In the 100-meter dash, Oakley Anderson placed third with a time of 13.92. Anderson also ran in the 100-meter hurdles event and placed sixth.

Rubie Weber had two top placing finishes in field events. A leap of 13-9.5 placed her in third for the long jump. Weber also placed second with a jump of 32-1 in the triple jump event. 

The eighth-grade girls 4x100 relay team placed third with a time of 58:27.

Other Lovell eighth-grade girls results (top 10) were:

400m- Macee Winterholler eighth; 800m- Winterholler fifth; 100m hurdles- Janelle Asay fifth; 200m hurdles- Asay ninth; 800m medley- fourth; triple jump- Laney Felkins eighth.

The seventh and sixth grade boys competed against each other in this meet. Despite having more competition, the Lovell sixth and seventh grade boys placed first out of 20 teams in this meet, beating the second-place team by 26.5 points.

Seventh grader Dax Mangus had first-place finishes, in the 100m dash and the long jump. Mangus ran a 12.40 in the 100m dash and jumped 16-9 in the long jump. Mangus also placed second in the high jump, clearing the five-foot bar.

Dallas Romero also had a successful meet. Romero placed first in the 200m dash, running 26.40. Romero had another first-place finish in the high jump, clearing five feet in the fewest number of tries. Romero also placed fifth in the long jump. 

The seventh and sixth grade boys had two first-place relay teams. Brhysan Henton, Romero, Mangus and James Sanders made up the 4x100 team. Their team ran a 48.87, beating the second-place team by five seconds. The 800m medley team included Thomas Nichols, Luke Bischoff, Kaden Waltjen and Kayan Owens. A run of 1:53 secured a win for them by six seconds.

Other Lovell sixth and seventh grade boys results (top ten) were:

100m- Sanders fourth, Henton sixth; 100m hurdles- James Henderson seventh; high jump- Henton sixth; long jump- Henton eighth; triple jump- Gage Angell; discus- Sanders fourth; shot put- Adam Hill third.

The sixth and seventh grade girls also had quite a few high placing performances.

“The seventh-grade girls took second only to Cody,” McArthur stated. “We did well, taking a few first, second and third places. They did a really good job.”

Seventh grader Nellie Guccion placed first in two of the long-distance events. In the 800-meter run, Guccion ran 2:42.58. She went on to run 5:50.10 in the 1,600-meter run, securing 20 points for her team. Her teammate Chloe Asay wasn’t far behind, placing fifth in the 800-meter and 1,600-meter runs.

Treleah Two Two placed first in the 400-meter dash, running 1:02.32. Two Two also placed sixth in the 100-meter dash. 

In the triple Jump, Emily Sanders and Gemma Walker placed first and third, respectively. Sanders jumped 27-6, and Walker jumped 27-4.

Sixth grader Blakey Piper represented Lovell well in her first meet. Piper placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.70. Piper also ran the 200-meter dash, securing first place with a run of 28.65. Piper also placed sixth in the 100-meter hurdles event.

Other Lovell sixth and seventh grade results (top ten) were:

100m- Charlize Hessenthaler ninth; 200m- Hessenthaler 10th; 4x100- second; 800m medley- third; high jump- Emily Sanders ninth, Walker ninth.

Lovell Middle School had 14 pre-qualifiers for the Best of the Best meet in Lander at the end of the season.

“I think we had about 14 that went overall last year, and we’ve got about 20 kids that are within a few inches or a few seconds of prequalifying this year,” McArthur said.

A previously scheduled meet in Cody that was to happen today (Thursday) was canceled due to expected poor weather conditions. To still get a meet in, the middle school athletes will compete in a meet in Shoshoni on Saturday, April 18.