Two Seniors Lead Plainsmen Track in Fort Collins

The Laramie Plainsmen won five event and finished second in the team standings at last Saturday’s 29th annual Poudre Track and Field Invitational in Fort Collins.

Seniors McCade Johnson and Reid Baty led the way. Johnson won two individual events and was on two victorious relays, while Baty won an event, was second in another and was also on the two winning relays.

Laramie head coach Gil Bradfield said it was a good meet.

“We had some good performances; some good times. Competition was real good, especially by Fort Collins High School, but there were some other teams there that really made people work, and we were glad to get the meet in.”

Johnson crossed the finish line first in both the 110 and 300 meter hurdles. His time was 14.75 in the 110’s and 38.48 in the 300’s. The senior beat sophomore teammate Jason Upton (second) by nearly three seconds in the 300 hurdles.

Baty won the 200 meters with a time of 23.05 seconds. He placed second in the high jump at 6-2, but lost on total attempts.

Bradfield said of Baty’s effort, “It was great for him and great for his confidence. I think we’re pretty much narrowing down what events, in particular for Reid, to run at regionals and state.”

Laramie won the 4x100 relay in 44.16 seconds and captured the 4x400 relay title at 3:25.48, which was 3.5 seconds faster than runner-up Fort Collins.

The Plainsmen 4x800 meter relay lost by .01 seconds to Poudre with a time of 8:22.22.

In other top performances, Tyler Dahl took second in the 400 meters, third in the 200 and fifth in the 100. He also ran a leg on the winning 4x400 relay. Connor Beeston tied for third place in the high jump at 5 feet-8.50 inches. Reece Shannon came in second in the long jump at 19-10. Upton added a third in the triple jump at 41-8.

As a team, the Laramie boy’s scored 124.5 points and placed behind meet champion Fort Collins, who finished with 177 points.

The Laramie Lady Plainsmen didn’t win an event, but the 4x800 meter relay came in second place. Their time was 10:10.12.

Junior Kyra Wulff placed in four events. She was third in the long jump (16-8) and fourth in the triple jump (31-5). Wulff added a fifth place (13.22) in the 100 meters and seventh in the 200 meters (27.66).

Emmy Johnson took third in the 800 meters at 2:22.19. Abigail Whitman added a fourth in the 800 (2:23.56) and third in the 1600 meters (5:17.93). Caely Pickerd came in third in the triple jump at 31-6.

The Lady Plainsmen finished in the middle of the team standings, fifth place, with 65 points. Fort Collins won the girls division with 183 points.

Bradfield added, “I thought it was a real solid performance (for the Laramie girl’s). There’s some people coming along, and we still have some others that we hope to get in the thick of things… The competition was there, so we know what we face and how to get better.”

Laramie is scheduled to compete Friday at the LoboCat Roundup in Fort Collins. There’s also a few student-athletes that have qualified for the prestigious Track Classic in Casper Friday. A small group of distance runners are scheduled to compete in Sturgis, So. Dakota Saturday.