WRHS track team makes strides at Filer
Nobody had a chance against the deep Jerome High School track and field teams during Thursday's Angie Wyatt Invitational meet in Filer.
But the Wood River boys track and field team earned 49 points for fourth place out of six squads and collected its first outright gold medal of the season when Chase Caulkins won the 1600-meter in 4:51.00.
Jerome's boys (127.5 points) won three of four relays and beat Kimberly (79) for the title.
Caulkins, a sophomore seeking his first state track berth this spring, sliced his mile time by 12 seconds compared to his March 28 Jerome Invitational clocking and won by two seconds over senior teammate Pedro Morales (4:53.7).
Morales (10:32.12) and Caulkins (10:32.2) ran neck-and-neck to the finish of the 3200m event and placed third and fourth, cutting five to eight seconds off the previous week. Between the two boys and two events, they earned 28 of Hailey's 49 points.
Tying for first place in the long jump was junior Rob Paris (19-4), and Paris added six more points with a 39-11 ½ triple jump for third place.
Senior Tyler Stocks was fifth in shotput (40-9 ½) and Wolverine junior Dale McLaughlin ended up fifth in pole vault (10-0).
The Wood River girls didn't pick up any points for placing during the six-school meet won by Jerome (168 points) over Kimberly (91). But there were a number of personal bests on a breezy day with its changeable temperatures, coach J.C. Nemecek said.
Ashton Lupton improved by 35 seconds in the 3200m for a personal record 17:27.5. Showing progress at 1600m with PRs were Brooke Bowers (6:43.00, a 24-second improvement) and Jade Glenn (7:10, 0:11).
Jade Glenn also had a PR 11-6 in long jump and Tori Poole long-jumped 10-8 ½. In the hurdles, Grace Lagodich clocked 20.5 in the 100m highs and 56.4 intermediates.
Wood River also brought some promising sprinters to Filer.
At 100m, Tanner Dredge was timed in 14.1 seconds and just missed placing. Jessica Martens (15.4) and Emily Matthews (15.5) logged PRs. Timed at 200m were Poole (32.9, PR, 1.5-second improvement), Matthews (33.3, PR, 1.3) and Martens (33.4).
Coming up are the Declo Invitational Thursday, April 10 followed by the Buhl Rotary meet April 17.
Distance runners pace Carey boys to second win
Carey School senior Blake Whitby has a long way to run to get to where he wants to be, but distance specialist Whitby has made a pretty good start on the 2008 track and field season.
Whitby won the 3200-meter and 1600m runs by substantial margins Thursday on the ISDB track in Gooding—leading the Carey boys to their second successive team victory in the weekly small school meets.
Carey amassed 62 of its 129 points in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m distance runs including senior D.J. Simpson's victory in the 800m run. Two more Panther first place finishes came in the high jump and 4x400m relay at Gooding.
In the final totals, Carey (129 points) was 23 ahead of second-place Oakley (106) and third-place Raft River of Malta (79), the four-time defending State 1A boys' track champion.
Carey boys' coach Lee Cook said, "The kids worked hard and made a good showing. It was a good workout, a good meet with good competition."
Whitby won the 3200m by 25 seconds and the 1600m by more than eight seconds. His two-mile time of 10:31.46 was eight seconds faster than the previous week, but it has to come down to match Whitby's 10:03 third-place showing at last May's State 1A 3200m run.
"Blake didn't have much competition this week so he's planning to go down to one of the meets with bigger schools this coming week," said Cook.
Simpson (2:09.51) captured the two-lap 800m run by two seconds over Dietrich junior Scott Perron, last year's State 1A 800m and 1600m runner-up. Carey senior Tyler Parke (6-0) won Thursday's high jump.
And Carey's mile relay squad of Scott Ellsworth, Jacy Baird, Gonzalo Zarate and D.J. Simpson was a 14-second winner over Shoshone Thursday.
The Carey girls (43 points) placed seventh behind Raft River (98) and Camas County of Fairfield (tie for second, 72) in the 11-school girls' meet. Amy Ellsworth (1:04.49) took the 400m dash by over two seconds.
Panther girls' coach Lane Kirkland said, "Amy won the open 400 and placed third in the 1600m and looked real strong for her first meet of the year. She also ran the anchor leg on the medley relay and passed four teams on the homestretch to help us take second place."
Camas sprinter Lindsey Peterson won 100m and 200m dashes and helped the Mushers to 30 points in relays. Fairfield's Toni Wear took 100m high hurdles.
Musher boys earned 47 points, 32 in throws including Jeff Ellingson's first-place school-record discus plus 14 from senior Ben McLam in the 100m dash and 110m hurdles.
Next meet is Thursday, April 10, also at ISDB, Gooding.
Boys results
Teams: 1—Carey 129 (16 sprints, 9 hurdles, 62 distances, 30 relays, 12 field). 2—Oakley 106 (30 sprints, 20 hurdles, 0 distances, 28 relays, 28 field).
3—Raft River 79. 4—Dietrich 56. 5—Camas County 47. 6—Shoshone 41. 7—Hansen 27. 8—Castleford 23. 9—Richfield 6. 10—Bliss 4. 11—ISDB 0.
100m: 1—Brian Babbitt (Oakley) 11:58. 3—Ben McLam (CC) 11.65. 200m: 1—Babbitt 23.54. 4—Gonzalo Zarate (C) 24.50. 400m: 1—Jaren Stoddard (Diet) 53.65. 3—Scott Ellsworth (C) 55.82. 4—Kade Peterson (C) 59.31. 5—Kwenton Richardson (C) 1:00.00.
800m: 1—D.J. Simpson (C) 2:09.51. 4—Tyler Parke (C) 2:19.03. 5—Dillon Simpson (C) 2:21.30. 1600m: 1—Blake Whitby (C) 4:55.26. 3—Kade Peterson (C) 5:24.69. 4—Tyler Parke (C) 5:25.37. 5—Dillon Simpson (C) 5:25.81. 3200m: 1—Blake Whitby (C) 10:31.46. 2—Kade Peterson (C) 10:58.60. 3—Dillon Simpson (C) 11:10.50.
110m high hurdles: 1—Josh Greenwell (Oakley) 16.80. 2—Ben McLam (CC) 17.78. 3—Jacy Baird (C) 18.06. 5—Joe Laidlaw (C) 20.07. 300m intermediate hurdles: 1—Josh Greenwell (Oakley) 44.17. 6—Joe Laidlaw (C) 48.22.
High jump: 1—Tyler Parke (C) 6-0. 5—Jacy Baird (C) 5-4. Long jump: 1—Irving Kody (Castle) 18-10 ¼. Triple jump: 1—Ian Archibald (Oakley) 38-9 ½. 6—Derek Walker (CC) 36-2 ¼. Shotput: 1—Cody Nye (RR) 41-6. 2—J.D. Jewett (CC) 41-4 ¼. 3—Jeff Ellingson (CC) 40-5 ¾. Discus: 1—Jeff Ellingson (CC) 140-9. 2—J.D. Jewett (CC) 129-11.
4x100m relay: 1—Oakley 46.54. 2—Carey (Jacy Baird, D.J. Simpson, Heith Adamson, Gonzalo Zarate) 47.20. 4x200m relay: 1—Oakley 1:36.03. 2—Carey (Scott Ellsworth, Heith Adamson, Gonzalo Zarate, D.J. Simpson) 1:37.73.
Medley relay: 1—Dietrich 3:55.04. 4—Carey (Trevor Peck, Lynn Mecham, Scott Ellsworth, Brett Adamson) 4:17.72. 4x400m relay: 1—Carey (Scott Ellsworth, Jacy Baird, Gonzalo Zarate, D.J. Simpson) 3:48.03.
Girls results
Teams: 1—Raft River 97 (21 sprints, 0 hurdles, 5 distances, 30 relays, 41 field). 2—Camas County 72 (20 sprints, 14 hurdles, 6 distances, 28 relays, 4 field). 2—Shoshone 71.
4—Castleford 59, 5—Oakley 49. 6—Dietrich 48. 7—Carey 43 (10 sprints, 7 hurdles, 6 distances, 8 relays, 12 field). 8—Richfield 38. 9—Bliss 14. 10—Hansen 10. 11—ISDB 8.
100m: 1—Lindsey Peterson (CC) 13.29. 200m: 1—Lindsey Peterson (CC) 28.24. 400m: 1—Amy Ellsworth (C) 1:04.49.
800m: 1—Nakia Norman (Diet) 2:43.36. 3—Megan Stampke (CC) 2:48.13. 1600m: 1—Nakia Norman (Diet) 6:02.29. 3—Amy Ellsworth (C) 6:03.60. 3200m: 1—Taylor Astle (Sho) 13:10.40.
100m high hurdles: 1—Toni Wear (CC) 18.43. 4—Hailey Gregory (CC) 18.94. 5—Shelby Hansen (C) 20.04. 6—Jen Cenarrusa (C) 20.10. 300m intermediate hurdles: 1—Rikki Wiggins (Castle) 56.20. 4—Kayla Bailey (C) 58.78.
High jump: 1—Ceann Carpenter (RR) 5-0. 4—Jessica Parke (C) 4-4. Long jump: 1—Morgan Hubsmith (Rich) 16-0 ¼. Triple jump: 1—Morgan Hubsmith (Rich) 33-1. 2—Amy Ellsworth (C) 31-6. 4—Toni Wear (CC) 28-8. Shotput: 1—Kelly Perron (Sho) and Alysa Larsen (Oakley) 31-5. Discus: 1—Marli Manning (RR) 95-8 ½.
4x100m relay: 1—Raft River 55.20. 2—Camas County 57.04. 4x200m relay: 1—Raft River 1:58.28. 2—Camas County 2:03.25.
Medley relay: 1—Raft River 2:00.30. 2—Carey (Shelby Hansen, Jen Cenarrusa, Kayla Bailey, Amy Ellsworth) 2:06.00. 4x400m relay: 1—Castleford 4:54.10. 3—Camas County 5:51.32.
Discus thrower breaks Camas prep record
Camas County High School sophomore Jeff Ellingson of Fairfield has a thing about high school discus records that are 36 years old.
He keeps breaking them.
Thursday at Gooding, in his first high school meet of the 2008 season, Ellingson uncorked a throw of 140 feet and 9 inches that won the discus event by 11 feet during the Northside/Southside Invitational at ISDB.
Bruce Funk of Shelley was a Camas County athlete when he set the previous Musher discus record of 135-5 ½ back in 1972, 36 years ago.
Judging by the past, Ellingson's record-breaking toss wasn't unusual.
In 2004, Ellingson was a sixth grader going to Mount Angel Middle School in Mount Angel, Ore. There he beat a 36-year-old sixth grade school discus record set in 1968. Again in the eighth grade, he beat the seventh/eighth grade record set in 1970, a 36-year-old record.
Ellingson moved to Carey as a freshman in high school when his father Doug Ellingson took a job as chief estimator at Ketchum-based Engelmann, Inc. Ellingson threw discus for Carey School last spring and finished fourth in the State 1A track and field meet at 120-07. The winning throw was 136-6 last year. The classification record is 170-09.
The Ellingson family hopes that Jeff can challenge for the state discus record in the years to come.
Ellingson has been one of the top age-group discus throwers in the nation since the fifth grade. Twice he has been ranked #1 in the nation—once in the sixth grade and once in the eighth grade. He has been the USA Track and Field Northwest regional discus champion every year since the sixth grade.
The 5-11, 187-pounder who played football for longtime Camas County grid coach Randy Jewett last fall comes from a long line of track and field athletes.
Jeff's older brother was the Oregon State 2A discus and shot put champion in 2001. His cousin Kevin Ellingson was 2A pole vault champ in Oregon for 2003 and runner-up in 2004. Another cousin, John Ellingson holds the current Oregon 2A state meet record as well as the State 2A vault record and was last years State 2A champion in the pole vault.
Chase Caulkins (left) and Pedro Morales match strides in Thursday’s 3200-meter run at the Filer meet. Morales placed third and 1600m winner Caulkins ended up fourth.
Courtesy photo
