ERIC X. VICCARO

Sports Editor

Guymon Daily Herald

 

ERIC X. VICCARO/Guymon Daily Herald

 

 

Guymon High School's Tijh Slaughter will be a threat to win the 100-meter dash Friday during the Tigers' own invitational set to take place at Carl and Lou McKinnon Field at Memorial Stadium.

 

 

 

Guymon High School head boys’ track and field coach Anthony Fogle said he expects a competitive finish at the Tigers’ own invitational this Friday.

The event will take place at Carl and Lou McKinnon Field at Memorial Stadium, beginning at 1 p.m. with the field events and the 4x800-meter relay.

“I think we’re going to have a lot of good teams in this meet,” Fogle stated. “A lot of teams could win it. We have Turpin and Liberal, Kan., here.”

Guymon will need to accumulate its lion’s share of points in the sprints and short-distance relays.

Tijh Slaughter, who bested Turpin’s Chandler Kirkhart by 12 one-hundredths of a second last week at the Turpin Invitational, is set to run the 100-meter dash. Dane Weippert will join Slaughter.

Justin Fogle, Anthony’s oldest son, and Colter Headrick will both compete in the 200 dash. Fogle will also run in the 400.

In the middle distances, Jospeh Ulibarri, Jake DeWilde, Josh Pierce and Isaac Bledsoe will all compete for the Tigers in the 800. DeWilde, Pierce and Bledsoe will also run the 1,600. There won’t be any Guymon runners in the 3,200.

The relays are set. 

Headrick, Weippert, Fogle and Slaughter will run in the 4x100-meter event and Pierce will join Headrick, Fogle and Weippert in the 4x400. Guymon will not field a 4x800-meter relay foursome.

Fogle is losing quality sprinters this week because of baseball participating at the “Battle of the Big Bats” tournament in Hobart and soccer playing at Bethany.

In the field events, both Fogle and Weippert will compete in the high jump. Breck Burkhart, Nick Marler and Junior Rubio will all put the shot and throw the discus. Jordan Fajen will join the same three, hopefully, for the 4x100-meter fat boys’ relay.

Because Raul Carillo is at baseball, the Tigers won’t feature a hurdler.

Coach Fogle said he’s confident Guymon can score plenty of points running, regardless.

“I look at our sprints as our strength,” Fogle said. “I feel good about our sprints and our middle distances.”

Fogle pre-heated this track meet Wednesday evening for all levels and genders of competition.

What exactly is pre-heating?

Schools faxed results to Fogle at the high school and he ran names through a spreadsheet program in his computer. The computer then processes individual heats and lane assignments.

“I think a lot of meets are going to start doing this,” Fogle said. “It’s a time-consuming process, especially with 24 kids in the 800-meter run, for example. It helps cut down on time.”

There will be plenty of restaurant-quality athletes to watch Friday.

Fred Soto is one of the area’s top pole vaulters from Boise City. J.D. Pugh from Texhoma is talented in both the 110-meter high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles. Hooker will be its strongest in the distance races, led by Ethan Neal, David Perez, Keaton Kachel and Colton Gilmore.

Volunteers needed

Volunteers are still needed for the meet. For information, call Vida Lutz at (580) 338-8125.