Correction, updated 8:09 a.m. MDT May 17: As it turns out, Campbell County HAS won a girls discus title, with Shana Paynor winning in 2004. I had Shana’s title mislabeled as a victory for Rock Springs. So, as it turns out, Campbell County’s girls have also won every state track and field event, in addition to those listed below. The lists have been updated to reflect that, although the story has not been changed. Thanks to Matt Albin for catching that mistake and letting me know!
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Burns’ Brooke Hansen and Campbell County’s Halo Miller will compete in the same event at this weekend’s Wyoming State Track and Field Championships — the discus.
And although they’ll be competing in different classifications, with Hansen in Class 2A and Miller in Class 4A, they’ll both be in competition for state championships.
If they do win, they’ll accomplish something no one in their gender at their school has ever completed, a state discus championship. And they’ll win a state title in the final remaining event for their school to claim a track and field full event sweep.
Track team championships are a good way to measure a school’s overall athletic ability.
But if you want to try to find a school’s athletic diversity, another measure might work better — looking at schools who have had at least one winner of every track and field event.
In all, 13 boys teams and four girls teams have won each of the 17 track and field events since 1970, the start of the first girls state track meet. Those tallies do not include the recently added 18th event, the 1600 medley relay, which only became part of the state track meet in 2018.
Also, keep in mind that boys and girls have not had the same opportunities over those 54 years to win every event. At the state meet, girls did not add the 3200, the 200/300 hurdles or the triple jump until 1980, the 4×400 or 4×800 relays until 1983, or the pole vault until 1996.
Since 1970, the start of the girls state track meet, here are the schools that have won each currently offered event at the state track meet aside from the 1600 medley relay:
Boys
Campbell County
Cheyenne Central
Cheyenne East
Cody
Cokeville
Douglas
Glenrock
Kelly Walsh
Lander
Laramie
Natrona County
Southeast
Torrington
Girls
Campbell County
Cheyenne Central
Dubois
Sheridan
Worland
Some schools are just one event away from a sweep. Burns’ Hansen and Campbell County’s Miller are two of close to 30 athletes competing this weekend in Casper who have a chance to add their school to the list of programs with event sweeps. Here’s those schools, with the event they have never won, or in some cases for the boys haven’t won since 1970, along with the competitors in those events from those schools for 2024:
Boys
Big Horn: discus (Chase Garber, Will Taylor, Paul Lobdell)
Burlington: discus (Hunter Aagard, Mickey Maroni)
Evanston: 4×800 relay (team of Jamar McDowell, Paul Baxter, Aidan Conrad and Gideon Stahl)
Green River: 4×100 relay (4×110 relay last won by Green River in 1953) (none)
Guernsey: pole vault (Kaiser Edwards)
Lingle: high jump (none)
Rock Springs: high jump (high jump last won by Rock Springs in 1960) (Chandler Smith, Jonas Slater)
Saratoga: 4×100 relay (none)
Sheridan: 1600 (mile run last won by Sheridan in 1959) (Shaun Gonda, Landrum Wiley, Aadan Luna)
Upton: 1600 (mile run last won by Upton in 1960) (Ben Carpenter, Tyson Huckins)
Worland: 110 hurdles (120 hurdles last won by Worland in 1955) (Noah Mitchell, Dawson Utterback, Wyatt Dickinson)
Girls
Burns: discus (Brooke Hansen)
Guernsey: 4×800 relay (none)
Kelly Walsh: 1600 (Lexi Longhurst)
Mountain View: 100 (none)
Natrona: pole vault (none)
Powell: 3200 (Kinley Cooper, Shelby Zickefoose, Kenna Jacobsen, Karee Cooley)
Southeast: 800 (Kaycee Kosmicki, Lizzy Boche, Anna Hartman)
Ten Sleep: pole vault (none)
–patrick