Wood River High School has qualified five athletes in eight events for the United Dairymen of Idaho's 91st annual Idaho High School Track and Field Championships May 22-23 at Boise's Bronco Stadium.
Hailey's state-bound athletes in the State 4A meet are in the distance runs, hurdles and field events. They are:
Seniors Pedro Morales (800-meter run, 1600m and 3200m) and Tyler Stocks (discus, shotput) along with junior Rob Paris (triple jump), sophomore Chase Caulkins (800m, 1600m, 3200m) and freshman Tanner Dredge (100m high hurdles, 300m intermediate hurdles).
Morales, with his sixth-best time of 16 state qualifiers in the 3200m at 10:26.61, has the best chance for the individual medals that go to the top six finishers. Caulkins has the seventh-best time of 4:41.85 at 1600m and seventh-fastest 800m clocking of 2:03.43. Stocks owns the eighth-best shotput of 45-2.5. He tossed the discus 127-02.
The 3200m finals for 5A/4A classifications begin Thursday at 4 p.m. at Lyle Smith Field. The 4A preliminary runs are Thursday evening and the finals are Friday evening. Field events occur during each day.
Spectators are asked to use the east side of the stadium again this year. Finish line photos of running events will be available for purchase. General admission is $5 a day. Trophies go to the top four boys' and girls' teams in each class.
Wood River athletes qualified for state by finishing in the top five during the May 14-15 regional track meet for seven schools, staged at Jerome. The Jerome Tigers won both the boys' team championship 174-148 over Pocatello and the girls' team title 202-133 over Preston.
Best placings for the Wood River girls at regionals last week came from freshman Dredge, fifth in 100m high hurdles with a state-qualifying time of 17.36 seconds and third in 300m intermediates at 49.78.
Caulkins boasted the best finish of all Wolverines, second in the 800m with a personal-record 2:03.43. He was fifth in both the 1600m and 3200m. Morales was third in the 800m and 3200m, and sixth in 1600m.
Rob Paris had a personal-record triple jump of 40-3.5 for fifth place and a state berth.
Grace Lagodich, a sophomore, just missed qualifying for state with a sixth-place time of 50.8 seconds in the intermediate hurdles. Other sixth-place regional boys for Hailey's boys:
Regional sixth places—Dale McLaughlin pole vault (11-6); Andrew Orr 400m (53.9); and 4x400m relay with McLaughlin, Greg LeBlanc, James Mark and Orr in 3:52.9.
WRHS girls' coach J.C. Nemecek said, "We were pleased with their performances. They set 14 personal records and one season's best over two days."
Besides Dredge and Lagodich, personal records came from Brooks Bowers, Madison Tidwell, Jade Glenn, Ashton Lupton and Tori Poole.
Other Hailey boys competing at regionals included John Bartoletta, Bo Brown (7th pole vault 10-6), Sam Colesworthy, Brandon Condon, Zeb Glenn, James Paris, Jed Prall, Colton Seely, Tom Waters, Josh Arters, Jake Miczulski and Anthony Williamson.
