Saratoga High School’s track team boasted four state qualifiers last weekend, according to back-to-back meet results from Rawlins and Saratoga.
Ben Gates qualified for state with his second-place time of 52.57 in the 400 meter dash at the Carbon County Invite in Rawlins last Friday. In the relay department, Gates, Rodrigo Escobedo, Ben Falk and Luke Lineberry of the “Saratoga A” team qualified for state with their first-place time of 3:40.82 in the 1600 meter relay at Saturday’s Saratoga Invite, as well as for their first-place time of 3:38.01 in the same relay at Rawlins.
Coach Rex Hohnholt said Gates has been running strongly and working hard during practices.
“Ben’s strength is just tremendous right now, and it’s my job as the coach to sharpen him up over the weeks before regionals,” he said. “He just needs to get up on his toes more and do some quicker stepping, but things have been hard because of the recent weather during practices.”
Hohnholt said his boys on the qualifying relay team have also been doing well, but that there is always room for improvement.
“The boys in our relay have been pretty solid and have a chance to run faster, and that’s what we have to do for our region meet,” he said. “We also need to spend more time on our relay handoffs.”
According to results, Saratoga High School had no shortage of other first place victories from the two meets. Other first-place weekend victories included Taylor Smith in the 100 meter hurdles and two pole vaults, Haley Soles in two 400 meter dashes, Andrew Oiler in the pole vault, Cameron Collamer in the 1600 meter run and 800 meter run and Daniel Kerbs in the 3200 meter run. For relays, Veronica Lincoln, Haley Soles, Savannah Savannah Ramsey and Kelsie Samson received first in the 1600 meter relay, and Thatcher Spiering, Bradley Bifano, Andrew Oiler and Jace Berger received first in the 400 meter relay.
Adding to the list, Rodrigo Escobedo, Tate Stinson, Hunter Mason and Marshal Hill also received first in the 400 meter relay. Cameron Collamer, Daniel Kerbs, Ben Gates received first in the 3200 meter relay. Smith also broke her former pole vault school record of 7’6”, set last year, with a new record of 7’10”.
Hohnholt said he was pleased that was so many kids were able to make it to both meets.
“We had pretty much all of our kids on the team at the meets, and we had a good week to work on things,” he said. “I’m glad that we were able to follow the week with two track meets over the weekend, and as a group I thought we had a real productive couple of meets. These next meets coming up will give us a good idea of where we are and need to be for regionals and to qualify for state, and we hope to progress more and keep our kids healthy.”
Hohnholt said he also hopes more of his kids can eventually qualify for state and mentally prepare themselves for competition ahead.
“We have to be mentally prepared now because we have a lot of decisions to make before regionals and state, and we have to be prepared to give our best performance,” he said. “Preparing is not just all about focusing on being No. 1 or No. 2. It’s about improving, setting goals and being successful, and I hope to see continued improvement from the kids.”
The team has two more meets, one in Baggs and one in Lander, before regionals in Gillette on May 10 and 11. The state championships are May 16-18 in Casper.
Reader Comments(0)