Laramie Indoor Track is Ready for the State Championships [VIDEO]

The last weekend of the indoor track season is here for Laramie High School. The state championships are Friday and Saturday in Gillette.

The competition is broken up into two days. Friday starts at 11:30 a.m., while the meet resumes on Saturday at 9 a.m.

LHS is one of 28 teams competing at this year’s championships. There are 46 student-athletes competing for Laramie this weekend. The girls' team has 24 participants and the boys has 21.

Head coach Greg Schabron likes where his team is entering the final weekend of the season. He says from top-to-bottom, the kids have improved.

“(They’ve got a lot better) with confidence, with their fitness level, so really happy with that, but especially with how many kids stuck out the season. I think having a meet every week helped them, and the numbers were actually a lot better this year than we expected. We’re just over 80 and able to hold most of those (on the team). It’s a good season going forward. Team ranking wise, obviously, it’s not as high as we’d like to be but it’s definitely the direction we need to be going.”

Schabron feels the girls are rated around tenth, while the boys are fifth heading into the state meet.

“Hopefully, with a little of taper, adjustments, and some more events, we hope to improve on those (rankings), as well.”

Two seniors who are ranked high in some events are seniors Mallorie Hamel and Quail Perkins. They’ll both be competing in multiple events. KOWB’s David Settle spoke with the two seniors this week about preparing for their last indoor track meet in high school, what they’ll be competing in, and what it will take to be successful this weekend. That’s in the video at the top of this story.

For many athletes, this will be the first time this season they’ll be competing in three or four events in one meet. Schabron knows that the two days will help with recovery.

“Some events are less conducive to that depending on where they fall on each day, but from the coaching aspect, we want them to approach it with confidence but not over-think it. Usually, if they start thinking about it being a state meet, that’s more of an issue than the three or four events. They’ve had some tough practices. They’re fit. They’re ready to go.”

Laramie enters the state indoor track championships with the top-ranked sprint medley and 4x800 relays. Quail Perkins is top five in the 200-meters. John Rose is the defending champion in the high jump and ranked second. Adrien Calderon and Carson Diedrich are both in the top six of the pole vault.

On the girls’ side, Hamel is top six in the 400-meters and Ashlyn Bingham is seventh in the triple jump.

Schabron adds, “We’re looking for improvements with our top individuals on those (marks and times), and hopefully, some dark horses come through in the other events.”

Friday’s schedule of events includes the Girls’ long jump, Boys’ triple jump, Boys’ pole vault, Girls high jump, and Girls and Boys Shot Put qualifying. On the track will be the Sprint Medley Relay, 3200-meter finals, 400-meter finals, 55-meter hurdle prelims, 55-meter dash prelims, 4x800 meter relay finals, 200-meter prelims.

Saturday’s slate has the Boys long jump, Girls Triple jump, Boys high jump, Girls’ pole vault, and Boys and Girls Shot Put finals. On the track will be the 4x200 meter relay finals, 800-meter finals, 55-meter hurdle finals, 55-meter dash finals, 200-meter finals, 1600-meter finals, 4x400 meter relay finals.