Wood River High School cross country runners had a bounce in their steps and certainly a kick in their running stride at Thursday's Wood River Invitational 3.1-mile meet on trails east of Sun Valley.
In the 152-runner field including 39 Wolverine entrants and eight from The Community School, the Wood River boys won the varsity team race by a narrow 42-44 margin over the Burley Bobcats.
Wood River junior Chase Caulkins captured his third consecutive podium with a third-place 18:43 boys' varsity finish behind Burley's strong 1-2 tandem of Taylor Bean (18:11) and David Fillmore (18:28).
Placing 5-6 were junior Danny Sundali (19:13) and sophomore James Paris (19:33). Sam Farnham (20:01) and Sean Dumke (20:12) of The Community School finished ninth and 11th of 40 runners.
Other highlights for the host Wood River thinclads coached by Joel Zellers, Monte Brothwell and Shari Kunz included senior Julia Bowman's second-place 23:32 finish in the girls' varsity race behind Jerome's runaway winner Mackenzie Chojnacky (20:59).
The Wood River junior varsity girls paced by race winner Corinne Smith, a freshman timed in 26:49, won the JV team race with 16 points over Jerome, 50. Junior Rusty Williams of Wood River (22:18) was second in the boys' JV race.
Next: Wood River competes Saturday, Sept. 20 at the Bob Firman Invitational at Eagle Island, Boise. Meanwhile, athletic director John Rade has announced changes in the upcoming cross country schedule.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, the day before the Homecoming celebration, Wood River stays at home instead of going to Blackfoot. They will compete in the "Carbonate Challenge" intra-squad race starting at Hailey's Hop Porter Park.
Wood River goes to the Kleinkopf Challenge Twin Falls Classic at Canyon Springs Golf Course at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1 instead of traveling to the Teton Challenge in Driggs.
Also, Wood River travels to the Ririe Challenge at Ririe Dam Wednesday, Oct. 8 instead of the Mountain View Invitational in Meridian on Oct. 9.
Top individual results, Wood River and Community School placings and times and team scores from Thursday's Wood River Invitational:
Varsity boys' team: 1—Wood River 42. 2—Burley 44. 3—Jerome 55. 4—Kimberly 79. 5—Minico 146.
Individual varsity boys: 1—Taylor Bean (Bur) 18:11. 2—David Fillmore (Bur) 18:28. 3—Chase Caulkins (WR) 18:43. 4—Mike McHan (Good) 18:54. 5—Danny Sundali (WR) 19:13. 6—James Paris (WR) 19:33.
9—Sam Farnham (CS) 20:01. 11—Sean Dumke (CS) 20:12. 15—Brendan Freund (WR) 20:37. 21—James Mark (WR) 21:14. 22—Andrew Pfeiffer (WR) 21:17. 23—Scotty Phelan (CS) 21:20. 24—William Spiller (WR) 21:21. 25—Torin Tucker (CS) 21:32 (40 runners).
Varsity girls' team: 1—Jerome 28. 2—Kimberly 58. 3—Wood River 63. 4—Burley 91. 5—Gooding 95.
Individual varsity girls: 1—Mackenzie Chojnacky (Jerome) 20:59. 2—Julia Bowman (WR) 23:32. 3—Kaitlin Gerard (Kimb) 23:37. 4—Brianna Parcells (Bur) 24:11. 5—Caitlin Pickens (Good) 24:20.
8—Tristin Bowers (WR) 24:49. 10—Sasha Kent (Richfield) 25:06. 15—Brooke Bowers (WR) 26:13. 16—Emily Williams (CS) 26:23. 17—Courtney Hamilton (CS) 26:24. 21—Anna Moerch (WR) 26:28. 24—Clarice Stevens (WR) 26:50. 27—Allie Freund (WR) 27:06. 28—Zana Davey (CS) 27:07. 29—Claire Bowman (WR) 27:17. 32—Morgan Atkinson (CS) 28:07 (41 runners).
JV boys' team: 1—Jerome 36. 2—Wood River 44. 3—Kimberly 52. 4—Gooding 96.
Individual JV boys: 1—Scott Hall (Jerome) 21:36. 2—Rusty Williams (WR) 22:18. 4—Sam Colesworthy (WR) 22:27. 11—Greg LeBlanc (WR) 23:34. 13—Drew Deffe (WR) 23:40. 16—Walker Royston (WR) 23:49. 19—Jackson Long (WR) 24:24. 22—Sean Dahlman (WR) 24:33. 23—Luke Poster (WR) 24:37. 28—Sage Sauerbray (WR) 25:36. 29—Connor Hesselbacher (WR) 26:03. 30—Andreas Morales (WR) 26:03. 37—Andrew McKean (WR) 29:28 (43 runners).
JV girls' team: 1—Wood River 16. 2—Jerome 50. 3—Gooding 97.
Individual JV girls: 1—Corinne Smith (WR) 26:49. 4—Laura Kunz (WR) 28:34. 5—Erin Burbank (WR) 28:44. 6—Jamie Colver (WR) 29:28. 8—Dani McLaughlin (WR) 29:30. 9—Lyndsey Lascheck (WR) 29:33. 12—Meggie Rose (WR) 29:59 and Maddie Cordovano (WR) 29:59. 16—Tanya Greenwood (WR) 31:37. 20—Ashton Lupton (WR) 33:07. 22—Madeline Flade (WR) 33:37. 23—Amy Tamayo (WR) 33:57. 24—Brita Gaeddert (WR) 34:40 (28 runners).
Wood River senior Julia Bowman runs along Thursday’s Boundary Creek Campground course en route to second place in the girls’ varsity race.
