EVANSTON — The Lady Red Devil and Red Devil indoor track teams took part in the state meet on March 1-2, in Gillette, following two weeks of preparation since the Simplot Games at Idaho State University. Both teams performed admirably, including an outright championship in one event, the boys’ 4 x 400-meter relay race, which Evanston won by .04 seconds with a time of 3:33.31. The winning team is comprised of Gabe Morris, Cris Periman, Tyrell Halladay and Kody Smith. At the Simplot Games, Dallin Cardin stepped in for Halladay, who had tweaked an ankle prior to the finals. That team placed a very respectable fourth, but one of the teams who bested the Red Devils in Pocatello was Sheridan.

“It was truly one of the neatest races I’ve ever seen, really amazing,” EHS track and indoor track head coach Roy Barker told the Herald.

“They had beaten us at Simplot and at state we said, ‘we’re gonna get them,’ and we did.”

Barker described the last leg of the race run by Kody Smith, who was definitely enduring some pain while competing.

“The Natrona kid just shot out of there to a big lead but he gassed out, Kody caught him and then outleaned the Sheridan kid to win it. It was awesome,” Barker added.

“It’s such a new sport that it seems whenever we have a good group, we break a school record in indoor track. This was the most points the boys’ team has ever scored in a state meet and that’s a credit to a great group of seniors,” Barker avowed.

Evanston placed eighth overall for the boys’ team and the girls took 11th place at the state meet.

The boys’ team scores were as follows:

1) Sheridan — 106                
2)  Star Valley — 88
3)  Cheyenne East — 71        
3) Natrona County — 71
5)  Laramie — 68.5               
6)  Thunder Basin — 40
7)  Cheyenne Central — 38    
8)  Evanston — 35

And the girls’ team scores lined up this way
1)Laramie — 112                 
2)  Cheyenne Central — 93
3)  Rock Springs — 89           
4)  Sheridan — 60
5)  Thunder Basin — 50.5      
6)  Kelly Walsh — 48
7)  Cody — 31.5                     

10) Star Valley — 22
11)  Evanston — 21               
12)  Cheyenne South — 14
13)  Campbell County — 11 
14)  Riverton —  9.5
15)  Worland — 4                  
16)  Lovell —    2

Barker praised senior leadership for the success of both the boys’ and girls’ teams.
“It’s easy for the athletes involved in indoor track to look ahead to the spring season sport they’re going to be taking part in. I told them they had worked too hard to not focus in on state,” Barker explained.

“They took it to heart and had some gutsy performances at state. Their commitment level and competitiveness have been awesome to watch,” Barker affirmed.

“Marks-wise, I believe Weston Wiley, Bradshaw Haack, Tyrell Halladay and Dallin Cardin — all our distance runners, all had personal bests at state. And the seniors as a whole had a tremendous impact. The way they practiced set a great example for our younger kids to follow,” the coach stated.

“And the same for our senior girls — Breila Fuller, Reghan Worley, Lexi Demander and Gabby Hall — just really set a good legacy for the underclassmen.”

Barker relayed that the Sheridan team who won the overall boys’  title was loaded, due to some outstanding Buffalo High School athletes teaming up with an already talented group from Sheridan, due to the Bison not fielding an indoor track team of its own.

The regular spring-season track and field teams began practice yesterday, on March 4, at EHS.