Coming off his Kimberly Invitational victory Sept. 13 at Magic Mountain Ski Area, Wood River High School senior Pedro Morales turned on the afterburners Saturday during the prestigious Bob Firman Invitational in Boise.
Morales became the fastest Idaho finisher and placed third overall of 195 Division 1 boys in the Bob Firman 5-kilometer footrace at Eagle Island State Park. It was quite an impressive performance by the Wolverine runner among some of Idaho and the Northwest's best.
His final time was 16 minutes and 52 seconds, just 10 seconds behind Division 1 winner Richard Keroack (16:42) of West Valley (Spokane) and five seconds off the pace of Tyler Robinson (16:48) of Parowan High School in southern Utah.
Coach James Foster said, "It was the fastest time clocked by a WRHS runner in my nine years coaching here and one of the most spectacular determined finishes I've ever seen."
Morales wasn't the only Hailey runner making gains. Junior Julia Bowman (20:35) placed 17th of 142 Division 1 girls only 94 seconds off the winning pace of Twin Falls freshman Amanda Ward (19:01).
There were 2,248 runners from collegiate to middle school at the 33rd annual Bob Firman event. All except the collegiate men (8 kilometers) ran the 5k (3.1-mile) course.
Fastest 5k times were Judge Memorial (Salt Lake City) senior Luke Puskedra (14:42), Seattle Pacific sophomore Jessica Pixler (18:01) and Borah senior Nicole Nielsen (18:19).
Wood River's boys placed 15th of 28 Division 1 teams with 353 points behind winner Twin Falls (80). The Wolverine girls (282 points) were 10th of 17 schools behind winner Trabuco Hills (Ca.) (62).
Wolverine placings by race:
Division 1 boys: 3—Pedro Morales 16:52. 34—Chase Caulkins 17:38. 87—James Paris 18:40. 88—Sam Colesworthy 18:41. 154—James Mark 19:29. 155—Greg LeBlanc 19:30. 156—Dale McLaughlin 19:32.
Division 2 girls: 17—Julia Bowman 20:35. 58—Brooke Bowers 22:16. 70—Rosie Gilchrist 22:28. 82—Madie Deffe 22:48. 85—Maddie Cordovano 22:53. 94—Heidi Bergt 23:06. 107—Lacie Anderson 23:33.
Division 1 junior varsity boys: 173—Zack Lowry 19:29. 185—Will Spiller 19:46. 248—Jed Prall 20:47. 277—Chris Clark 21:18. 283—Walker Royston 21:42. 317—Johnny Dilley 22:30. 357—Cody Mortenson 29:04. 361—Connor Hesselbacher 29:18. 375—Will Drier 30:02.
Division 1 junior varsity girls: 133—Allie Freund 24:26. 171—Tessa Barrow 25:46. 177—Desi Peters 26:19. 181—Clarice Stevens 26:27. 207—Tanya Greenwood 27:19. 233—Ashton Lupton 29:16.
Collegiate women: 82—Ashley Rendahl (Northwest Nazarene freshman) 21:12. 91—Tess Dahlgren (Humboldt State freshman) 21:31.
