In less than an hour of real time, North Platte junior Olivia Rogers made three trips to the center podium at the Class 2 State Track Meet and was a perfect four-for-four in gold medals on the day.
North Platte junior Olivia Rogers won four state medals to score 40 of the Lady Panthers 71 points in the Class 2 State Meet on May 21.
Rogers was busy at Jefferson City High School on May 21 with very little time between her four races, but still earned first place in all four events. Starting with the 100-meter dash, where the sprinter crossed the finish line in 12.40 seconds, Rogers didn’t have much time to rest with the 4x200-meter relay being the next event.
The Class 1 boys and girls raced before the North Platte girls’ relay team when Rogers was the third leg. The Lady Panthers finished 3.5 seconds faster than the next team, crossing the finish line in 1:44.95 for Rogers’ second trip to the first-place podium.
Rogers had a slightly longer break before being the second leg in the 4x100-meter, with the 1,600-meter run in between. The Lady Panthers earned another gold medal in that race with a time of 50.86 seconds.
“I didn’t get my first drink of water until my third event, so it was really tiring,” North Platte junior Olivia Rogers said. “We work really hard in practice, so I just used my endurance that I’ve developed there and at other races. I tried to relax between the races too.”
The sprinter capped off her junior campaign with one last individual first-place finish in the 200-meter dash in 25.95 seconds. Rogers was a key contributor to the first North Platte state championship in program history, scoring 40 of the team’s 71 total points.
“It’s crazy; everyone has worked really hard. I’m so happy for me and for the whole team, it feels amazing,” Rogers said.
To put in perspective how dominant Rogers’ performance was, 55 Class 2 teams across the state scored in the meet but only five of those teams – including North Platte – outscored Rogers. The Lady Panther junior singlehandedly finished with 40 points, which would have been good enough for fourth place as a team; Saxony Lutheran Academy took third place with 42 points.
North Platte has never had a single individual finish with four gold medals at state, so Rogers set a school record with the achievement. The Lady Panthers have hung banners in two consecutive seasons – finishing as the 2021 Class 2 Runner-Up last spring – and Rogers will look to help North Platte potentially repeat next spring.