Outstanding athletes like Carey's D.J. Simpson, Blake Whitby and Amy Ellsworth, and Raft River's Nicole Harper showed their stuff Thursday during the weekly Northside/Southside track and field meet on Gooding's ISDB oval.
The 14-school meet was also a showcase for powerful teams like Carey's well-balanced and deep boys' squad, and the Raft River girls from Malta who are relying on strength in field events, sprints and relays.
Coach Lee Cook's triumphant Carey boys won six individual gold medals and two relays to dash away with the weekly team title with 149 points—62 distances, 36 relays and 24 in sprints and 24 field.
Panther senior Blake Whitby captured the 1600-meter run by 16 seconds and the 3200m by 42 seconds. Carey senior Simpson stayed hot on the heels of Dietrich junior Scott Perron and sprinted past Perron on the 800m home stretch to win by 1.40 seconds.
Carey senior Scott Ellsworth gave the Panthers 10 points by winning the 400m dash in 55.30 seconds. Senior Tyler Parke captured the high jump at 6-0. In only his second jump of the spring Carey junior Heith Adamson won the long jump in 19-11—putting Adamson third on the all-time Carey list.
Oakley's boys and Carey split the relay victories. Carey won the 4x400m with Ellsworth, Jacy Baird, Gonzalo Zarate and D.J. Simpson ("a good strong group," coach Cook said) and adding the medley triumph with Kwenton Richardson, Adamson, Ellsworth and Kade Peterson.
The Camas County boys (65 points) came within four points of second place in the team standings thanks to gold medals from J.D. Jewett in shotput, Jeff Ellingson in discus and 28 individual points from senior Ben McLam including victories in both hurdles events.
Raft River senior Harper won the 200m dash by a slim margin over the fine Camas County junior sprinter Lindsey Peterson, who was Thursday's 100m dash winner at ISDB.
Otherwise, Harper was a key cog of three winning relay teams as Raft River (123) swept the relays and won the team title by 51 over Camas (72).
Carey sophomore Amy Ellsworth made a big impression piling up 38 points out of the 58-point Panther girls' total. She swept the 400m dash, 800m and 1600m runs and finished a very close second to Richfield senior Morgan Hubsmith in triple jump.
Junior Hailey Gregory of Camas County won going away in the 300m intermediate hurdles as the Mushers amassed 24 points in the hurdles.
Next meet is Thursday, May 1 at 2 p.m. at Derrick Parke Memorial Field in Carey. Besides Northside schools, other visitors will be Lighthouse Christian Academy of Twin Falls, Hansen, Butte County of Arco, Hagerman and Jackpot (Nev.). Thursday's results:
Boys results
Teams: 1—Carey 149 (24 sprints, 3 hurdles, 62 distances, 24 field, 36 relays). 2—Shoshone 68.5. 3—Oakley 67. 4—Raft River of Malta 66.
5—Camas County of Fairfield 65 (8 sprints, 20 hurdles, 0 distances, 27 field, 10 relays). 6—Hagerman 25. 7—Dietrich 17.5. 8—Richfield 17. 9—Bliss 16. 10—Castleford 14. 11—Jackpot 9. 12—Murtaugh 6.5. 13—Hansen 4.5. 14—ISDB 0.
100m: 1—Brian Babbitt (Oakley) 11:40. 2—Ben McLam (CC) 11.50. 200m: 1—Babbitt 23.30. 3 (tie)—Gonzalo Zarate (C) 24.10. 400m: 1—Scott Ellsworth (C) 55.30. 2—Kade Peterson (C) 57.80. 6—Kwenton Richardson (C) 1:01.10.
800m: 1—D.J. Simpson (C) 2:10.90. 4—Dillon Simpson (C) 2:19.50. 1600m: 1—Blake Whitby (C) 5:02.00. 2—Kade Peterson (C) 5:18.40. 3—Dillon Simpson (C) 5:22.00. 3200m: 1—Blake Whitby (C) 10:41.90. 2—Kade Peterson (C) 11:22.50. 3—Dillon Simpson (C) 11:34.20.
110m high hurdles: 1—Ben McLam (CC) 17.30. 5—Jacy Baird (C) 18.00. 300m intermediate hurdles: 1—Ben McLam (CC) 44.60. 6—Joe Laidlaw (C) 47.50.
High jump: 1—Tyler Parke (C) 6-0. 4—Jacy Baird (C) 5-6. Long jump: 1—Heith Adamson (C) 19-11. Triple jump: 1—Tel Clark (R) 38-8. 5—Derek Walker (CC) 34-10 ½. 6—Mickenzie Boggs (CC) 34-8 ½. Shotput: 1—J.D. Jewett (CC) 44-4. 4—Jeff Ellingson (CC) 39-4 ½. Discus: 1—Jeff Ellingson (CC) 140-4.
4x100m relay: 1—Oakley (Payson Bedke, Josh Greenwell, Hunter Wadsworth, Brian Babbitt) 47.60. 2—Carey (Jacy Baird, D.J. Simpson, Heith Adamson, Gonzalo Zarate) 48.40. 4x200m relay: 1—Oakley (Bedke, Greenwell, Wadsworth, Babbitt) 1:36.80. 2—Carey (Scott Ellsworth, Gonzalo Zarate, Heith Adamson, D.J. Simpson) 1:37.50.
Medley relay: 1—Carey (Kwenton Richardson, Heith Adamson, Scott Ellsworth, Kade Peterson) 4:07.00. 4—Camas County 4:55.10. 4x400m relay: 1—Carey (Scott Ellsworth, Jacy Baird, Gonzalo Zarate, D.J. Simpson) 3:51.50. 5—Camas County 4:34.10.
Girls results
Teams: 1—Raft River 123 (20 sprints, 0 hurdles, 14 distances, 49 field, 40 relays). 2—Camas County 72 (18 sprints, 24 hurdles, 8 distances, 4 field, 18 relays). 3—Shoshone 71.
4—Carey 58 (10 sprints, 8 hurdles, 20 distances, 16 field, 4 relays).
5—Castleford 47. 6—Richfield 38. 7—Hagerman 30. 8—Dietrich 25. 9—Oakley 21. 10—Bliss 11. 11—Hansen 8. 12—Jackpot 7. 13—ISDB and Murtaugh 6.
100m: 1—Lindsey Peterson (CC) 13.00. 200m: 1—Nicole Harper (RR) 27.30. 2—Lindsey Peterson (CC) 27.60. 400m: 1—Amy Ellsworth (C) 1:04.60.
800m: 1—Amy Ellsworth (C) 2:44.00. 1600m: 1—Amy Ellsworth (C) 6:05.70. 3200m: 1—Taylor Astle (Sho) 13:33.10. 2—Megan Stampke (CC) 13:55.30.
100m high hurdles: 1—Krista Allen (R) 18.20. 2—Toni Wear (CC) 18.40. 3—Hailey Gregory (CC) 18.45. 4—Jen Cenarrusa (C) 19.10. 5—Brooke Bingham (C) 19.10. 300m intermediate hurdles: 1—Hailey Gregory (CC) 52.40. 5—Kayla Bailey (C) 56.00.
High jump: 1—Ceann Carpenter (RR) 4-8. 2—Jessica Parke (C) 4-8. Long jump: 1—Sally Hansen (RR) 16-2 ½. 5—Hailey Gregory (CC) 14-0 ¾. Triple jump: 1—Morgan Hubsmith (Rich) 32-7. 2—Amy Ellsworth (C) 32-6 ¾. 5—Paige Davies (CC) 27-10. Shotput: 1—Kelly Perron (Sho) 31-11 ½. Discus: 1—Marli Manning (RR) 100-8 ½.
4x100m relay: 1—Raft River (Natalie Greenwood, Sally Hansen, Whitney Holtman, Nicole Harper) 55.00. 2—Camas County 56.30. 4x200m relay: 1—Raft River (Greenwood, Danielle Andreason, Kassie Ottley, Holtman) 1:50.00.
Medley relay: 1—Raft River (Greenwood, Ottley, Nicole Harper, Holtman) 2:01.06. 2—Camas County 2:08.60. 4—Carey 2:12.80. 4x400m relay: 1—Raft River (Holtman, Greenwood, Harper, Hansen) 4:38.40. 5—Camas County 5:41.20.
Carey senior D.J. Simpson winning the 800-meter run during a Northside Conference meet earlier in April. Photo by David N. Seelig
