Sheridan boys, girls end school year in style with dual state track titles (2024)

Sheridan put the finishing touches on an outstanding sports season last weekend at the Wyoming State High School Class 4A Track & Field Championships in Casper.

The boys’ team claimed its third title in four years while the girls’ team won the program’s first title since 1983. It marked the first time both programs won state championships in the same year.

“We’ve been fortunate to have some great teams here,” Sheridan head coach Taylor Kelting said. “This year we just progressed throughout the season and it all came together at state.”

The boys’ team finished with 141 points; Cody was second with 81.5 points. In the girls’ race, Sheridan totaled 112 points while runner-up Cheyenne had 83 points.

Sheridan also won its third consecutive state football championship in the fall and the boys’ state indoor track & field title for the fifth time in six years in the winter season. The Sheridan girls won the program’s first state basketball championship in March.

Girls

Addie Pendergast capped her outstanding prep career with record-setting performances in both the 400-meter run and the 300-meter hurdles.

The senior defended her title in the 400 with a time of 54.40 seconds to break the mark of 54.62 she ran at last year’s state meet.

“The first step to being successful is believing in yourself,” Pendergast said after the race. “I came into this race with a lot of confidence and hearing my teammates cheer me on definitely pushed me.”

Pendergast finished second in the 100 before adding the 300 hurdles title. Her time of 42.69 broke the standard of 43.21 set by Natrona County’s Lauryn Taubert in 2016.

“There are always nerves before the race, but in the end, it feels really good to finish on a high note,” she said. “I think I’ve been so focused on the running that I haven’t thought much about this being my last race, my last meet … I’ve been staying in the moment.”

The individual state championships were the sixth and seventh Pendergast won in outdoor.

As a freshman at Tongue River in 2021, she won the 100 and 400 to help lead the Eagles to the 2A team title. After sitting out her sophom*ore season, Pendergast won the 100, 200 and 400 last year for Sheridan. She also won the 400 at state indoor last year and was the 2A cross country champ in 2020.

“Addie is definitely special,” Kelting said. “She is the heartbeat of this program.”

Pendergast wasn’t the only Bronc to rise to the challenge last weekend, though.

Junior Lilly Charest won pole vault; senior Callista Roush was second in triple jump and fifth in long jump; freshman Mesa Hanft finished third in triple jump and the 100 hurdles, and fourth in the 300 hurdles; seniors Amara Caywood and Tennyson Lewallen were second and third, respectively, in shot put; and sophom*ore Ruby Jacobs placed fourth in the 100 hurdles.

“We talk about the team having cheetahs and hyenas,” Kelting said. “The hyenas are those kids that might not win but they’re going to score important team points. And those girls really executed at state.”

Including the four relays, in which Sheridan scored 23 combined points, 18 different Broncs finished on the podium last weekend.

Boys

The Broncs started fast and finished even faster to get back on top in 4A after finishing fourth last year.

Senior Landrum Wiley held off a stacked field to win the 3200 meters in the opening event of the state meet to set the tone for the weekend. And senior Aiden O’Leary (300 hurdles) and junior Chance Morris (100, 200) won gold on Saturday to cap Sheridan’s impressive weekend.

“Landrum started strong and was able to do his thing,” Kelting said. “That really ignited the flame and we were able to build off that and get stronger.”

Morris burned up the track in the sprints.

He won the 100 in 10.93 to edge out Cheyenne Central’s Tegan Krause (10.94) and later set a state record with a 21.11 in the 200. Big Horn’s Gavin Stafford had broken the mark of 21.39 set by Laramie’s Stephen Michel in 2008 with a 21.16 in the Class 2A finals just minutes before Morris crossed the finish line.

Not bad for a kid who was in just his second year competing in track. Morris also missed the state indoor meet with a ruptured appendix.

“We knew he would be fast,” Kelting said of Morris, “we just didn’t expect that. But he’s fluid and he understands the phases of the race. Chase knows how to go to work.”

O’Leary does as well, it just took him until this year to develop the right mindset.

“In the past few seasons I’ve always been a super-friendly guy and always tried to talk to people and make as many friends as I can,” he said. “This year I’ve taken a more serious approach and have been getting more frustrated before I run.

“On Thursday, I (set a personal record in the 110 hurdles prelims) and I was pretty angry. Friday, I PR’ed (in the 300 hurdles prelims) and I was angry so I thought today I might try it and be angry. I’ve just been trying to be more angry when I run.”

The strategy worked.

After finishing second to Kelly Walsh’s Caleb Ortberg in a photo finish in the 110s — Ortberg crossed the line in 14.86, O’Leary in 14.88 — O’Leary recovered after a slow start to win the 300 hurdles in a school-record time of 38.00.

Junior Garrett Otto was second in the race and senior Cameron Perez finished fourth. Otto and Perez also finished third and sixth, respectively, in the 110s to give the Broncs 40 combined points in the hurdles.

“They knew what they needed to do,” Kelting said. “Those guys feed off of each other and with what they did we knew we had a good chance to win the team title. We really widened the gap in the hurdles.”

In addition, all four of the Broncs relay teams finished second and senior Alex Haswell led a strong contingent in the throws that tacked on 21 more points. Haswell won silver in both shot put and discus.

All told, 17 different Broncs finished on the podium, including 11 in individual events.

“This year we had a lot of guys come out,” O’Leary noted. “We gave it our all in indoor and came out with a win. And we did the same thing in outdoor. We just had a lot of kids step up.

“Having a team that always wants to get better, and one where you don’t have to coach effort, is amazing.”

Notes and numbers

Morris won her fourth long jump title with a leap of 20-08.5 to break her own class record (19-08 last year) and the state mark of 19-09 set by Lyman’s Ann Wingeleth in 2015.

She ran an 11.68 in the 100 prelims to overtake Cheyenne Central’s Arnetta Simpson, who ran an 11.91 in 1998. Morris won gold with an 11.93. In the 200 prelims she ran a 23.70 to break the record of Kelly Walsh’s Jerayah Davis (23.79 in 2013) and then topped that with a 23.45 in the finals.

“I could hear her coming,” Thorne said. “Thankfully we had enough of a lead that I held her off.”

Senior Makenna Lorenzen “felt great” out of the blocks to get the Trojans off to a fast start. Sophom*ore Allie Scribner ran a “fun” second leg and made up ground on the leaders before handing the baton to sophom*ore Parker Giese.

“Allie and I had a great handoff,” Giese said. “And then I just did what I could to make sure Maddie had the lead.”

It was Jirak’s first outdoor state championship after winning four state indoor titles — in the 55-meter dash, the 200, the 400 and long jump in Class 3A — each of the past two years. Jirak earned her first gold medal in outdoor last year when the Braves won the 4x100.

Last weekend Jirak also placed second in the 200, the 400, long jump and the 100 hurdles to score 42 team points for Star Valley, which finished fifth with 57 points.

“Long jump is definitely an inches game,” Walker stated. “I set a goal for myself coming into the weekend and I just had to trust myself, trust my coaches and trust my trainers. But this shows I can do what I need to do to be successful.”

Ekstrom also won the 400 while Hulbert finished first in both the 800 and 1600.