Track team gains experience at state

The Green River girls team, with only three seniors out of the eight state qualifiers, had a good performance finishing seventh out of the field of 10 teams.

Green River's best sprinter, sophomore Andri Dewey, recovering from a muscle pull, finished 11th in the preliminaries 100-meter dash, exactly one-half second out of second place. Andri followed up with a 13th place finish in the 200-meter dash against a senior dominated field while also placing 13th in the 400 meters, showing some great promise in the sprints for the future.

In the distance running senior Josie Givens, led the way as she has done all season, finishing just one second of the pace in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:23.01 while scoring eight team points and adding another four team points while placing 5th in the 1600 meters while improving her season best by nearly 3 seconds.

In the 3200 meter run, freshman Kaisa Arnell improved her time by an impressive 40 seconds to finish in 5th place in a time of 11:51.30 to score four more team points.

In the preliminaries of the 100 meter hurdles junior Eliza Morin finished 11th, improving her time to a season best of 17.40 while freshman Erika Wilson also had a season best while finishing 12th in 17.49 with six seniors ahead of them the future also looks bright in the hurdles for the Lady Wolves. Morin also came through in the 300 meter hurdles finishing in 5th place and scoring four team points, with a time of 47.97.

The girls 4x400 meter relay team made up of Josie Givens and Senior Hayley Henderson along with Morin and Wilson dropped four seconds from their previous best to capture 8th place and score a point for the team standings.

In the high jump Wilson again showed the future looks bright for girls track as the freshman finished fourth, behind two seniors and a junior with a height of 5-02.00 while sophomore Aaliyah Brady competing at state for the first time took 17th in the long jump and gained valuable experience.

Finally, for the girls in the throwing events, senior Emily White, excelled as she has all season, leading the way in points for the girls with a third place finish in the shot put and a second place finish in the discuss with a throw of 123-5.

For the boys, the 4x800 meter relay team, the youngest team in the field, with juniors Eric Clinenpeel, Braden Reichel and sophomores, Brayden Kovick and Cole White scored the only team points by finishing in eighth place, while improving their time 25 seconds with a season best of 8:32.45. According to coach Hansen these runners gave it all they got, "running it the way they should have."

Also in the running events, sophomore Cole White finished 11th in the 400-meter dash, less than a second and a half out of second place. In the 800 meters junior Braden Reichl picked up valuable experience while finishing 11th in a race dominated by upper classman, with seven seniors finishing in front of him.

Sophomore Chance Hofer in his first state meet finished 14th in the 110 hurdles and 15th in the 300-meter hurdles. In the field events jumper Drew Wilson finished 17th in both the long jump and triple jump while thrower, junior, Hunter Spartz finished 12th in the discus and 10th in the shot put.

Coach Hansen was pleased with the boys performance as "all of the state participants were underclassman and all competing in their first state meet , which should help strengthen the program."