Story originally ran in June 13 2018 edition of Jackson Hole News & Guide
Staryk and Williams will compete at Nationals this weekend in North Carolina.
(Image Credit: Ryan Dorgan JHN&G)
Wyoming high school track season came to a close two weeks ago in Casper, but four Broncs runners haven’t hung up the track cleats just yet. Kate Brigham, Wyatt Sullivan, Mac Staryk and Ben Williams are spending parts of the late spring and early summer competing against stiffer competition.
This past weekend kicked things off for the rising freshman Brigham and soon-to-be senior Sullivan. The duo traveled to the Portland Track Festival in Oregon to compete in an open race with extremely high-level competition from around the nation. The meet even included Olympic hopefuls in the event’s pro divisions on the same track.
Brigham is fresh off a middle school season that saw her win Best of the Best in Lander. She took the honor after posting Wyoming’s fastest middle school mile since Jackson Hole High School alumna and former All-American Anna Gibson was an eighth-grader five years ago.
Sullivan did some record-breaking himself this past season. He posted a school-best time of 9 minutes and 45 seconds in the 3,200-meter event, his premier race.
Both Sullivan and Brigham kicked off the postseason racing with strong times in Portland. Brigham finished second overall in the girls 1,500, with a time of 4:57.74, nine seconds behind the first-place runner. Sullivan started his summer by posting a time of 4:29.34 in the mile, good for 19th in his division.
Two other Broncs runners, rising senior Staryk and rising sophomore Williams, used their times from the state meet in the mile and 2-mile, respectively, to qualify for the New Balance National Outdoor Track and Field Championships. It’s a rare achievement for Jackson runners, Broncs coach Matt Chorney said.
“We went to New Balance [Nationals] for the first time two years ago with Anna Gibson,” Chorney said. “When the kids see and talk about competition outside of Wyoming it really just builds momentum for the younger ones looking up to them in the program.”
Staryk and Williams will travel across the country to Greensboro, North Carolina, to compete this weekend. Chorney said it was Williams’ continued gains throughout the 2018 season that helped him to qualify and compete among the nation’s best.
“He’s just progressed so much over 10 months from cross-country [season] to now,” Chorney said. “It seems like he gets faster every time he starts a race.”
The qualifying times the two runners needed to compete in this weekend’s event were converted to adjust for the handicap that comes with running above 6,000 feet. Chorney is already looking forward to what Williams will do during the cross-country season this fall. He’s just as eager to see what Williams and Staryk will do when they take their talents to sea level this weekend.
“We come from an interesting situation when it comes to qualifying. It is hard to run fast times at altitude,” Chorney said. “They are going to go down there and have an awful lot of oxygen. It should be fun for them.”
Chorney is amazed at what Williams was able to do as a freshman. But the coach credits Staryk and the Broncs upperclassmen with showing the young runner the winning way. He looks forward to seeing Staryk and Williams compete side by side one final time during the 2018 track season.
“They really have come a long way on dirt and track,” he said. “They feed off each other well and push one another. A lot of the younger guys, like Ben, really get pushed by [the upperclassmen] and look up to them.”
When the cross-country season begins in August the team will be led by Sullivan and Staryk along with a strong set of rising juniors and the underclassman, Williams. On the girls side Brigham will represent the Class of 2022 and should be a speedy addition to a Lady Broncs team that returns plenty of talent, led by state qualifier and rising senior Andie Cornish.
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