Thinclads give chase, Caulkins in second
Wood River High School junior Chase Caulkins continues to be impressive in early-season prep cross-country runs around the Gem State. He's giving chase, and doing it well.
Caulkins finished a strong second in Thursday's Minico Invitational 3.1-miler at Lake Walcott near Rupert. Caulkins (18:32) barged into a bevy of Twin Falls runners (who placed 1-3-4-5-6-8-9) and made away with the Minico silver.
On Aug. 29 Caulkins was third overall in the Pocatello Invitational, behind Burley pacesetters Taylor Bean and David Fillmore. Burley wasn't at Minico Thursday, instead the Bobcats hosted the Burley Invitational with Bean and Fillmore the top boys, again.
Wood River coaches Joel Zellers and Monte Brothwell took a full crew of 33 runners to Minico and the Wolverines placed third in both the girls' and boys' team rankings behind Twin Falls and Jerome.
Individual winners for the second straight 5A/4A meet were Twin Falls freshman Erik Harris and Jerome sophomore Mackenzie Chojnacky.
Next fastest Wood River boys were James Paris and Danny Sundali, while Clarice Stevens and Julia Bowman led the Hailey girls.
Wood River will host the Wood River Invitational on Thursday, Sept. 11 starting at Boundary Creek Campground east of Sun Valley. Times are 4 p.m. for junior varsity girls, 4:30 p.m. JV boys, 5 p.m. varsity girls and 5:30 p.m. varsity boys.
Schools that have been invited are Minico, Jerome, Mountain View, Eagle, Preston, Pocatello, Buhl, Burley, Twin Falls and Century.
Results from Thursday's Minico meet:
Boys' team: 1—Twin Falls 19. 2—Jerome 62. 3—Wood River 67. 4—Century of Pocatello 145. 5—Minico 297.
Individual boys: 1—Erik Harris (TF) 18:04. 2—Chase Caulkins 18:32. 11—James Paris 19:30. 12—Danny Sundali 19:38. 19—Brendan Freund 20:56. 23—Andrew Pfeiffer 21:03. 24—William Spiller 21:23. 32—James Mark 22:08. 47—Rusty Williams 22:38. 49—Dale McLaughlin 22:47.
40—Sam Colesworthy 22:40. 45—Greg LeBlanc 23:33. 55—Walker Royston 24:12. 60—Drew Deffe 24:35. 66—Andreas Morales 25:26. 71—Shawn Dahlman 26:03. 72—Connor Hesselbacher 26:25.
Girls' team: 1—Twin Falls 26. 2—Jerome 44. 3—Wood River 78. 4—Century of Pocatello 80. 5—Minico 193.
Individual girls: 1—Mackenzie Chojnacky (J) 20:55. 12—Clarice Stevens 25:43. 13—Julia Bowman 25:45. 15—Chelsey Souligny 25:51. 20—Brooke Bowers 26:22.
18—Tristin Bowers 26:25. 24—Anna Moerch 27:05. 25—Allie Freund 27:26. 28—Claire Bowman 28:06. 29—Erin Burbank 28:34. 32—Laura Kunz 28:58. 34—Lyndsey Lascheck 29:08. 36—Jamie Colver 29:17. 40—Meggie Rose 30:22. 48—Ashton Lupton 31:59. 52—Madeline Flade 33:07. 54—Brita Gaeddert 35:09. 59—Amy Tamayo 36:45.
Valley brings out Cutthroat runners
Seven Community School cross country runners traveled to Hazelton Friday, Sept. 5 for their first meet of the 2008 thinclad season, the Valley Invitational that drew 188 runners.
Placing in the top 21 of the 59-runner boys' varsity field were senior Sam Farnham 11th in 20:22, senior Sean Dumke 12th in 20:31, sophomore Torin Tucker 17th in 21:20 and senior Scotty Phelan 21st in 21:53.
Individual boys' winner was Mike McHan of Gooding in 18:31. Declo (50 points) won the team title over Kimberly (54).
Senior Courtney Hamilton paced the Cutthroat girls in 13th place of 53 finishers with a 3.1-mile time of 26:50. Sophomore Zana Davey was 18th in 27:40 and freshman Morgan Atkinson 26th in 28:09.
Buhl's Desiree Hepworth led the varsity girls in 22:50. Gooding (44 points) was the team winner over Buhl (49).
Swimmers sweep Caldwell in YMCA debut
Picking up 12 individual gold medals and four relay victories, the Wood River High School swim team swept the girls' and boys' titles of Saturday's dual meet—first home meet ever at the new Wood River Community YMCA pool.
Gold medalists were Racheal McGinnis (100 and 200 free), Taylor Coiner (200 IM and 500 free), Megan Hayes (100 fly and 100 back), Elizabeth Fry (100 breast), Jon Atkinson (50 and 100 free), Gene Fairbrother (100 fly), Max Jones (100 back) and Matt Lichtenberg (100 breast).
The girls' relay of McGinnis, Taylor Coiner, Hayes and Esther Williams won 200 medley and 400 free. Golds also went to the boys' 200 medley with Jones, Lichtenberg, Fairbrother and Atkinson, and 200 free with Lichtenberg, Bryce Ervin, Broadie Burrell and Adam Potts.
Next meet is Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Twin Falls Y pool. Other top results for Wood River swimmers not already mentioned in this account:
2nds—Michael Coiner and JT Sutton (200 free), Ashleigh Share (200 IM) and Tory Emerick (100 free).
3rds—Zoey Olbum (100 free) and Melissa Becker (500 free).
4ths—Reta Flynt (100 free).
5ths—Ellie Shay (100 breast).
Spikers see strong teams at Highland Invite
Playing against strong competition, fast offenses and hitters who deliver were early-season challenges facing the Wood River High School volleyball team during last weekend's Peg Peterson Invitational at Highland High in Pocatello.
Coach Tim Richards' Wolverines (3-4) defeated Blackfoot 25-9, 25-16 in Friday's pool play, but lost in two games to Shelley and Highland of Pocatello. Wood River also split with Rigby, winning one game 25-19.
Advancing into Saturday's tournament, Wood River opened with a 25-19, 25-21 loss to Madison of Rexburg. The Wolverines bounced back with a come-from-behind 19-25, 25-17, 15-12 over Skyline of Idaho Falls before exiting with a 25-23, 25-22 loss to Highland.
"The tournament tested our defense," said Richards, whose varsity returned to Pocatello Tuesday night for a triangular with Jerome and Century.
Dominating the Sept. 5-6 tournament was reigning State 4A champion Bonneville of Idaho Falls (15-1). Bonneville beat two-time defending State 3A titlist Sugar-Salem of Sugar City 25-20, 22-25, 25-16 in Saturday's championship match.
Sugar-Salem (9-2) defeated Century (8-3) 21-25, 25-17, 15-8 in the semi-final and Century settled for third place.
