HERDER NATION: Indoor track season kicks off in Casper

Matt Adelman photo

Glenrock High School senior Makenzi Partridge lunges over the bar during the Natrona Track and Field Invite last weekend in Casper. However, the season start did not go as planned, as an internet outage prevented the official timing system from working.

By: 
RJ Morgan, rj@glenrockind.com

The second year of indoor track and field is underway at Glenrock High School. However, the first meet of the season did not go quite as planned.

The Herders made the short trip to Casper to compete in the Natrona Invite with nearly two dozen schools. However, there were no official winners or losers because of an internet outage that eliminated the official timing system.

Instead, runners were timed the old fashioned way with stopwatches. Field event competitors were limited to just three attempts for the meet.

“It was a glorified practice, that’s what it turned out to be,” GHS head coach Chris Gray said. “There were no places but it was still well worth the time spent.”

The Herders, when healthy, have a roster of 10 to start his season – one boy and nine girls. The lone boy is junior Bryant Svrko who is giving track a try for the first time.

“He’s working hard and we are glad to have him,” Gray said. “He will be a thrower for us.”

Though the first meet did not go as planned for organizers, Glenrock had a couple of athletes already show they will be a force this year. Senior Esperanza Almonte started the season off right by setting a personal record with a throw of 25 feet.

Erica Dority, fresh off an impressive cross country season, impressed Gray in pole vault.

“She cleared 7 feet in her first meet and just barely missed the 7-6 mark,” he said.

Makenzi Partridge made her debut and went 4 feet, 4 inches in high jump. The team will also benefit from the return of Bella Taylor, who will be a four-year track letterman this year and will provide leadership to the growing program.

“The best thing that probably came out of this meet is most of our kids have never been to an indoor meet. And if you have never been to one, it’s quite the eye opener,” Gray said. “It will help this week because we are going to Gillette and that will by far be the biggest meet in the state this week.”

The Herder program has some additional help as athletes train this year to better their times and further their distances with more one-on-one coaching. Cody Tilliard will be assisting with hurdlers, while Adam Humphries will work with throwers and Ray Kumple will train pole vaulters.

“This will help our kids a lot,” Gray said. “Now, if we can just get some weather that will allow us to work out outside.”

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