On the Burley t-shirts was the phrase, "The Power to Win Comes from Within." The t-shirt of Wood River High School cross country co-coach James Foster simply said "Heat, Hills and Headwinds."
High school cross country runners carried those kind of determined attitudes out onto a new 3.1-mile (5 kilometer) trail and dirt road course in Quigley Canyon near Hailey's Wood River High School Thursday.
Ideal late-summer conditions—warm without much wind—appealed to 173 runners from seven schools including Wood River and The Community School of Sun Valley.
The occasion was the annual Wood River Invitational meet, started so many years ago by the late Wolverine cross country coach Bob Shay and continued with Shay-like enthusiasm by Foster and Wood River co-coach Joel Zellers.
Wood River's coaches appreciated the effort of their 16 boys and 16 girls led by senior Pedro Morales (3rd overall boys' varsity 16:51) and junior Julia Bowman (2nd overall girls' varsity 20:52). Sophomore Chase Caulkins was seventh among boys (17:04) and Rosie Gilchrist eighth among the girls (22:27).
Individual medalists were Burley junior Taylor Bean (16:07, a winner by 17 seconds) and Jerome's McKenzie Chojnacky (19:47).
Community School coaches Rick Kapala and Abi Holt liked the progress of their solid block of four varsity boys paced by junior Sam Farnham (15th place, 18:05) and four varsity girls led by junior Marissa Dreyer (12th place, 23:19).
Both local teams now head to the Kimberly Invitational meet Thursday, Sept. 13 at Magic Mountain Ski Area south of Twin Falls. Results:
Boys' varsity (50 runners): 1—Taylor Bean (Burley) 16:07. 2—David Fillmore (Burley) 16:24. 3—Pedro Morales (WR) 16:51. 4—Isaac Creed (Skyline) 16:56. 5—Tim Johnson (Burley) 16:58.
7—Chase Caulkins (WR) 17:04. 15—Sam Farnham (CS) 18:05. 22—Max Durtschi (CS) 18:35. 24—Scotty Phelan (CS) 18:41. 26—Sean Dumke (CS) 18:44. 30—Sam Colesworthy (WR) 18:52. 32—James Paris (WR) 18:57. 34—James Mark (WR) 19:12. 43—Greg LeBlanc (WR) 20:20. 46—Dale McLaughlin (WR) 21:12.
Boys' varsity team scores: 1—Burley 34 points. 2—Skyline 49. 3—Wood River 74. 4—Kimberly 79. 5—Jerome 88. 6—Mountain Home 154.
Girls' varsity (70 runners): 1—McKenzie Chojnacky (Jerome) 19:47. 2—Julia Bowman (WR) 20:52. 3—Hailey Schafer (MtHome) 21:15. 4—Clare Haley (Skyline) 21:25. 5—Jolyn Wendt (Skyline) 21:47.
8—Rosie Gilchrist (WR) 22:27. 12—Marissa Dreyer (CS) 23:19. 15—Brooke Bowers (WR) 23:36. 18—Maddie Cordovano (WR) 23:48. 19—Courtney Hamilton (CS) 23:51. 20—Heidi Bergt (WR) 23:53. 23—Bronwen Raff (CS) 24:09. 24—Lacie Anderson (WR) 24:32. 26—Emily Williams (CS) 24:38. 30—Maya Deim (WR) 24:52. 32—Allie Freund (WR) 25:27. 36—Madie Deffe (WR) 25:38. 42—Tessa Barrow (WR) 26:12. 45—Clarice Stevens (WR) 27:06. 53—Dezi Peters (WR) 28:13. 55—Taylor Thomas (WR) 28:28. 61—Tanya Greenwood (WR) 29:24. 67—Ashley Lupton (WR) 30:43. 70—Lyndsey Lascheck (WR) 35:23.
Girls' varsity team scores: 1—Skyline 44. 2—Wood River 59. 3—Jerome 89. 4—Mountain Home 96. 5—Burley 116. 6—Kimberly 117.
Boys' junior varsity (53 runners): 1—Skyler Crystal (Kimberly) 18:59. 2—Michael Breidenbach (Skyline) 19:06. 3—Logan Alton (Kimberly) 19:09. 4—Zach Lowry (WR) 19:18. 5—Dylan Johnson (MtHome) 19:23.
17—Will Spiller (WR) 20:42. 24—Jason Barbee (WR) 21:09. 28—Jed Prall (WR) 21:50. 35—Chris Clark (WR) 22:37. 39—Walker Royston (WR) 22:50. 42—Hunter Scarborough (WR) 23:42. 46—Connor Hesselbacher (WR) 24:53. 48—Johnny Dilley (WR) 25:34. 50—Carson Caraluzzi (CS) 26:03.
Boys' junior varsity team scores: 1—Skyline 31. 2—Kimberly 55. 3—Jerome 84. 4—Wood River 88. 5—Burley 107.
