The biggest footrace of the young Idaho cross-country running season brought 867 high school and middle school runners to Freeman Park in Idaho Falls Friday. There, the Tiger-Grizz Invitational was staged on a 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) course.
Wood River High School sent 31 runners and they showed a great deal of improvement. But the Boise Braves were the lead dogs, winning the varsity boys' (29-87 over Hillcrest) and varsity girls' (49-66 over Bear Lake) team championships.
The Wolverine girls of coaches Joel Zellers and James Foster placed 11th of 21 schools, while the Hailey boys were 17th of 21 schools.
Highland of Pocatello runner Taylor Farnsworth (16:23) was the top boy among 150. Boise's Annie Lovelace (19:57) led the 142 girls. Wood River leaders were Ashley Rendahl (24th in 22:33) and Tess Dahlgren (25th in 22:34) in the girls' race, and Gerardo Garcia (43rd in 18:55) in the boys' footrace.
The Wolverines travel to the Bob Firman Invitational Saturday, Sept. 24 at Eagle Island State Park, Boise.
Meanwhile, Wood River Middle School runners won the boys' team title 41-45 over Jerome in the recent Twin Falls 1.9-mile footrace at Thompson Park.
All five of Wood River's top finishers placed in the top 15. They were: 3—Austin Cruz. 6—Brendan Freund. 8—Tyler Davis. 9—James Paris. 15—Jordan Niedrich. Other Hailey runners were Zack Israel, Luke Poster, Jonathan Hobbes, Chris Clark, Trevor Tamez-Davidson, Hunter VanBremer, Nick Dobie, Brandon Beall and Ben Herren.
Wood River High results from the Tiger-Grizz meet follow:
Girls' varsity: 24—Ashley Rendahl 22:33. 25—Tess Dahlgren 22:34. 51—Rosie Gilchrist 23:40. 109—Maddie Cordovano 26:03. 119—Meggie Rose 27:03. 121—Trisha McLaughlin 27:06. 135—Kat Pettengill 28:39 (142 runners).
Girls' JV: 53—Georgia Thies 27:31. 74—Melissa Fischman 28:40. 90—Aimee Loudenslager 29:28. 119—Kortnee King 31:25 (156 runners).
Boys' varsity: 43—Gerardo Garcia 18:55. 98—Nick Purdy 20:33. 114—Bryce Moulton 20:57. 129—Kyle Hill 21:27. 130—Cole Wells 21:29. 134—Connor Caraluzzi 21:37. 141—Kyle Niedrich 22:28 (150 runners).
Boys' JV: 36—Pedro Morales 20:13. 109—Jack VanPaepeghem 22:00. 110—Zack Lowry 22:01. 121—Joe Zeman 22:19. 131—Clay Johnson 22:37. 140—Taylor Sundali 22:55. 184—Drew Anderson 24:19. 186—Zack Thornton 24:22. 196—Brad Dobie 24:43. 203—Greg LeBlanc 24:52. 218—John David Davidson 26:08. 242—Josh Ricsi 29:01. 258—Jon Diem 33:40 (267 runners).
