Qualified individuals and relays on the track team participated in the division two state finals last Saturday.

18 student-athletes represented CHS and performed well, despite the hours of rain delays and high stakes.

Some highlights from the meet include Carson Rabbitt (‘19) running a 4 minute and 20.64 second mile to take 3rd in the state, Josiah Fitch (‘20) throwing a personal record and placing tenth in shot put, Jordan Holton (‘19) throwing a personal record and placing 12th in discus, and both the girl’s and guy’s 4×400 relay teams smashing their personal records.

There were three different rain delays totaling around 5.5 hours. The meet was scheduled to end close to 4:30, but it finished instead at 10. Though the storms broke the meet up quite a bit, the girls 4×400 relay of Riley Thorburn (‘21), Myranda Montoye (‘20), Kendra Patterson (‘21), and Makayla Kegerreis (‘22) managed to stay positive and compete well even after waiting for their event all day.

“A lot of other relay teams got freaked out by all the delays, but we just tried to keep our heads up and have a good attitude,” Thorburn said. “In the end we beat our seed place and time, which was a good way to end the season.”

The guys 4×400 relay team also competed well despite waiting out the stormy weather all day and beat their best time of the season by one second. Runners in this relay were Brennan Van Riper (‘20), Colton Trevino (‘19), Mikey Tarasow (‘19), and Carson Rabbitt (‘19).

“The meet was a fun experience,” Van Riper said. “It was hard to stay prepared during delays yet we still placed higher than we were seeded.”

Other athletes who competed include Reagan Lehman (‘20) and  Dominic Guthre (‘21) for pole vault, Jensen Holm (‘19) in the 2 mile, and Dominik Green (‘20), Will Scott (‘20), Foster Thorburn (‘19), and Zander Hartstuff (‘20) for the 4×800 relay.

Though there was much deterrence from rain delays, Chelsea pulled through and represented well at the biggest meet of the year. Anchor for the 4×800, Dominik Green, said it was a cool experience to run against some of the best competition in the state.

“It was an amazing experience to see so many high-level athletes and I felt very lucky to run amongst with my teammates and friends,” Green said.