CASPER — For the second consecutive year, the Kemmerer High School girls’ track and field team  — led by a pair of individual champions, a relay championship and a host of podium finishes  — found themselves at the top of the heap, winning the 2A State Track and Field Championship in Casper over the weekend.

The boys’ team wasn’t far behind, placing third overall, with six individual titles.

Not bad for a program hailing from a town that head coach Phil Thatcher said most around the state still struggle to pronounce.

“It’s funny  — you get over there to Casper, and not many know much about Kemmerer, Wyoming,” Thatcher said, laughing. “They still pronounce it wrong, most of the time. But hopefully, we can change that in the next few years  — we keep having success, they’ll get used to pronouncing it.”

Success is definitely the word used to describe what the Lady Rangers and Rangers found at Kelly Walsh High School over the weekend  — the two teams combined for 33 individual placers  — including eight state champions  — and earned medals with seven relays.

“I just loved how every kid over there  — whether they were the favorites or underdogs  — went over and just did a great job,” Thatcher said. “Obviously, you have your big hitters  — the kids you expected to go over there and do good things and get a lot of points. But then you had kids like Riley Meyer, who places in the pole vault and the 300 hurdles. You have Abel Jimenez, who gets in on the pole vault, and you have Colter Krell, who sneaks in when he’s supposed to be 10th, and he ends up getting points in the 300 hurdles. You just have all these kids that feel that energy  — feel that duty and responsibility to the team  — and they go out and they just do a good job.”

Rangers sophomore Cole Rogers led the charge by winning all four of his individual events: The 110 hurdles, the 300 hurdles, the 100 meter dash and the 400 meter dash. Rogers set new 2A state records in both the 110 hurdles (14.76) and the 300 hurdles (37.88), and his times in both events earned him Best of the Best honors as the fastest times of the meet regardless of class.

“I was talking to him, and we talked about just taking each race at a time,” Thatcher said. “I said, ‘If you focus on each race, you’re the fastest kid in the state.’ And he proved that. I really appreciate his effort  — he grew up a lot this year from the beginning of the year to the end. I like that he didn’t take for granted his seed times. You know, sometimes as a young kid you can come in and think you’re already the fastest kid, but he went out and wanted to improve. He knew it was going to be tough, but he walked in there and competed and did a great job.”

Rangers senior Derek Hagler also won multiple championships, winning the shot put with a toss of 49 feet, 8 inches, and the discus, with a throw of 149 feet, 7 inches. It was his second title in the shot; his first in the discus.

“When I won the discus, I won it by two inches and I started crying,” Hagler said. “Coach Ponsalit ran over and immediately told me to never give up and to always try my hardest to reach my dream.”

Lady Ranger Laynee Walker capped off her storied career at KHS with her third consecutive state championship in the pole vault, this time setting a new 2A state record with 11 feet, 2 inches.

“It meant a lot to me [to get the record]  — I was super-happy to get it after falling short last year in my attempt,” Walker said. “So many