Laramie High School Olympic Sports Recap Feb 7-8

Several individual event champions and three second-place team finishes highlighted this past weekend of competition that involved student-athletes from Laramie High School.

Indoor Track and Field

Laramie's indoor track and field squads hosted their first home competition last Saturday with the Shine Indoor Invitational at War Memorial Fieldhouse on the University of Wyoming campus. It was also their first scored meet of the season.

Both the Laramie Plainsmen and Lady Plainsmen finished second in the team standings behind Cheyenne Central.

The Lady Plainsmen won all three relay events (4x200m, 4x400m, and 4x800m). Ashley Dodds captured first place in the 55 meter dash, Phoenix Farnham took top honors in the 400 meters and Ella DeWolf won the 800-meter run. Another highlight was a second place finish by Miranda Nunley in the shot put. She set a new school record with a toss of 33'10."

The Plainsmen were paced by Jonah Henry's victory in the 800 meters, Andrew Bugbee tied for first in the high jump, and they won the 4x800 meter relay.

Swimming

The Laramie Plainsmen were in Gillette for a pair of competitions last Friday and Saturday. Friday was a non-scored pre-invite, while Saturday was the main Gillette Invitational.

The LHS boys' finished in second place with 412.5 team points. They were 43 points back of champion Kelly Walsh.

Slade Sheaffer led the way with victories in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke events. Laramie was also runner-up in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays.

The Plainsmen failed to pick up any new state qualifiers, so they remain at 14 before the conference championships.

Nordic skiing

The Laramie High School Nordic skis teams ventured west to Utah for two days of racing at Soldier Hollow, a former Olympic venue. It was the Soldier Hollow Super Junior National Qualifier competition, and it featured over 600 racers from around the region.

Friday's action consisted of 1.3 kilometer sprint races. No Laramie team member qualified for the quarterfinals, which took the top 30 times broken down into age divisions.

Saturday was skate racing. Ann McInroy placed in the top ten of her U20 age division, while Hailey Schmitt was the second-best finisher from Wyoming in the U16 age division.

After they took out all non-Wyoming competitors, both Laramie squads finished third in the team standings. The Plainsmen scored 164 points, but were behind Jackson and Natrona County. The Lady Plainsmen ended up with 164, as well. Jackson also won the girls division and was followed by Lander.

Alpine skiing

Two days of giant slalom racing was cut short to one day at the Pinedale Invitational, as day two was cancelled.

The Laramie Lady Plainsmen ended fifth with 15 points. They were led last Friday by Megan Moss, who was fifth place after her two runs. Ana Torres finished in 18th place.

The Plainsmen finished sixth with seven points. Their top finisher was Brandyn Adkins, who ended up 14th. Dominic Tschacher was 17th.

Wrestling

It was a tough weekend at the Ron Thon Memorial Wrestling tournament in Riverton for the Laramie Plainsmen on the mat.

They came in 24th out of 40 teams and scored 40 points. Laramie had only one varsity placer in the event. That was Bridger Rardin, who took fifth at 132 pounds.