It was another good day for the Wood River High School track and field teams during the ninth annual Buhl Rotary Club Invitational meet staged on a cool and breezy Thursday at the Buhl High School oval.
Net proceeds from the 11-team meet went to Special Olympics.
Sophomore sprinter Sam Johnson set a personal-record of 27.51 seconds in the 200-meter dash and finished third for six points in the 200m final. Johnson also clocked 13.2 seconds and was third in the 100m dash.
Julia Bowman set another personal record of 12 minutes, 43.8 seconds—nine seconds faster than the previous week--in placing a close second in the 3200m distance run. Less than a half-second separated Bowman from Buhl's Desiree Hepworth at the 3200m finish line.
Ashley Rendahl, a Hailey senior, placed fourth at 3200m with a time of 12:59, 16 seconds behind Bowman. Allie Freund set a personal-record of 13-7 for sixth place in long jump. Bailey Ireland (13.4) was sixth in the 100m dash for three more points.
Wood River girls' coach J.C. Nemecek said, "We took six of the 11 girls to this meet. Like last week, the six did very well. They established five new personal records."
Two-time state hurdler Micah Floyd, a senior, had a rough day with a false start in the 110m high hurdles and a stumble in the 300m intermediates, but he recovered to finish fourth in the 300m at 42.47 seconds.
Sophomore Rob Paris continued his progress with a fifth place in long jump (18-10, personal record) and seventh in triple jump (36-10). And junior Tyler Stocks had a personal-best discus throw of 108-2 for seventh place and two more points.
Boys' coach Jeannie Bradshaw said, "It was a breezy day but we had a good time. Some boys were absent from the meet with homework pressures and a few injuries. But those who were able to go did a great job."
Since the Rotary meet's team winner was determined on the basis of total girls' and boys' points, Spring Creek (Nev.) won the title for the second straight year with 296 points compared to Jerome's 270.5. Wood River finished with 45 points.
In the boys' standings, Spring Creek's boys piled up 41 points in sprints, 37 distances, 31 hurdles and 38 more by winning three of four relays. Spring Creek took the boys' title 157-124 over Jerome. Wood River's 12 boys were ninth with 13.
Jerome's girls (146.5) won both jumps and throws and amassed 70 in the field plus 30 sprints to hold off runner-up Spring Creek (139). Once again Spring Creek won three of the four relays for 38 points and added 41 in the field. Wood River was seventh of 11 schools with 32 points.
Other Wolverines at Buhl and their times and distances:
Tyler Stocks shotput (37-1); Dale McLaughlin long jump (15-3) and 1600m (5:52); Taylor Walton 100m (14.5); Tom Waters 100m (12.9) and 200m (27.32, PR); Jed Prall 1600m (6:08, PR); Sam Colesworthy 1600m (5:24, PR) and 3200m (12:16); Ben Herron shotput (26-0) and discus (72-5); Greg LeBlanc 800m (2:18.0); Chase Caulkins 1600m (5:18, PR); and Pedro Morales 800m (2:28);
Allie Freund 100m high hurdles (18.4, PR) and triple jump (29-4, PR); Bailey Ireland discus (75-0) and shotput (24-0); and Ellen Ard discus (75-0).
Wood River hosted the annual Bob Shay Memorial Tuesday at Phil Homer Field then resumes May 3 at the Twin Falls All-Classes meet.
Teams scheduled to arrive for the Shay meet were Buhl, Mackay, Valley of Hazelton, Lighthouse Christian of Twin Falls and Gooding.
