Silver at state for Carey’s boys
Simpson, Hennefer strike individual
gold
Destry Simpson and Shawn Hennefer made
sweet memories of their high school track farewells Saturday—and helped the
Carey School boys’ track and field team to the silver trophy in the State 1A
meet.
Scoring points in everything except the
field, coach Blaine Tingey’s Carey boys won three golds and finished with 46
points. Hansen’s Huskies (46 distances) won their first-ever State 1A boys’
title with 65 points—51 more than last year.
Simpson, threatening classification
records in each event, won the 800-meter run by 2.80 seconds and placed second
in the 400m dash. He ran the third leg of Carey’s triumphant 1600m relay—the
final event of a blistering hot 96-degree day.
It took a new classification record of
49.49 seconds by Council junior Robert Jones to deny Simpson the gold in the
400m. Jones broke the seven-year-old mark of Carey’s Jordan Hennefer (50.12),
and Simpson (50.59) was very close.
Overall, Simpson had his hand in 36 points
including relays at state.
Shawn Hennefer, Jordan’s younger brother,
was third in Friday’s 300m intermediate hurdle prelims.
But Hennefer (40.70) just flew over the
hurdles in Saturday’s final race and beat both of the boys who were ahead of him
Friday—Murtaugh’s runner-up Matt Newkirk (41.14) and Deary’s Cory Warner
(41.27).
When push came to shove Saturday, seniors
Simpson and Shawn Hennefer lifted Carey to the silver by running the final two
legs and winning the last event of the state meet.
Seth Adamson started the 1600m relay and
second-leg Robbie Ellsworth moved the Panthers into third place. With 15 meters
to make up, Simpson powered Carey into the lead and anchor Hennefer held on with
an awesome kick that nipped Rockland’s challenge by .29 seconds.
Carey’s winning time of 3:30.44 was 1.08
seconds behind the classification record set by Carey in 1996.
Coach Blaine Tingey said, "I was really
thrilled. It shows these kids not only did what we asked, they did more, and
that showed up at state."
Youth was served as Carey’s other gold
medal of the 48th annual Idaho State Track & Field Championships at Bronco
Stadium in Boise came from three underclass girls and one determined senior.
Junior Kiri Adamson, junior Cheyanne
Bingham, senior Nicki McAfee and anchor Brenna Silva carried the Panthers to the
gold in the 800m relay (1:53.24). Silva, a freshman, held off Timberline-Weippe
state champ high hurdler Molly Carlson at the end.
Carey won despite a final handoff between
McAfee and Silva that almost was disastrous for the favored Panthers. "I get
antsy waiting," said Silva, who jumped out too quickly and virtually had to come
back and get the baton from McAfee.
Earlier Saturday, Timberline-Wieppe senior
Carlson dethroned Carey’s state champion high hurdler Ginger Bingham. Carlson
set a classification record of 16.1 seconds and relegated senior Bingham to
second—despite Ginger’s excellent 16.5 time, a half-second faster than last
year.
Overall, this year’s state meet was a vast
improvement for both Carey teams compared to 2002 at state.
The Carey boys, 19th overall in 2002 with
just 17 points, moved up to second place with 46 points. The Carey girls, 23rd
overall last May with 10 points, jumped all the way to fifth place Saturday with
40 points.
Coach Lane Kirkland’s Panther girls won
the 800m relay, placed second in the medley and rang up 24 points in relays. But
that wasn’t good enough against the field totals of leaders Kootenai and
Murtaugh.
Kootenai (82 points) won its second
straight state girls’ title with 32 field and 30 distances, led by junior Amy
Collins who won the 800m by 8.8 seconds and 1600m by 5.3.
Senior Lacey Perkins provided half of
Murtaugh’s 52 points by capturing the long jump and triple jump in dominating
fashion and taking third in the intermediates. Murtaugh had 34 in the field
alone.
Here are Carey’s point getters at
last week’s state meet:
1sts—Destry Simpson 800m (1:58.34);
and Shawn Hennefer 300m intermediates (40.70).
1sts relays—Boys’ 1600m relay
3:30.44 (Seth Adamson, Robbie Ellsworth, Destry Simpson, Shawn Hennefer); and
girls’ 800m relay 1:53.24 (Kiri Adamson, Cheyanne Bingham, Nicki McAfee, Brenna
Silva).
2nds—Destry Simpson 400m (50.59);
and Ginger Bingham 100m HH (16.50).
2nds relays— Boys’ 800m 1:34.33
(Seth Adamson, K.C. Rivera, Destry Simpson, Shawn Hennefer); and girls’ medley
2:00.12 (Kiri Adamson, Cheyanne Bingham, Nicki McAfee, Brenna Silva).
3rds relays—Girls’ 1600m relay
4:23.60 (Cheyanne Bingham, Nicki McAfee, Ginger Bingham, Brenna Silva);
4ths—Ginger Bingham 300m
intermediates (51.50).
7ths—Sarah Lynn Shaffer high jump
(4-8).
8ths—Jesse Molyneux discus (93-7).
1A team standings
Boys:
1—Hansen 65 (13 relays, 46 distances, 0 hurdles, 0 sprints, 6 field). 2—Carey 46
(18 relays, 10 distances, 10 hurdles, 8 sprints, 0 field). 3—Raft River 45.5 (10
relays, 0 distances, 0 hurdles, 14 sprints, 21.5 field).
Girls:
1—Kootenai 82 (10 relays, 30 distances, 10 hurdles, 0 sprints, 32 field). 2—Murtaugh
52 (0 relays, 0 distances, 6 hurdles, 12 sprints, 34 field). 5—Carey 40 (24
relays, 0 distances, 13 hurdles, 0 sprints, 3 field).