Friday, March 18, 2011

Martinez, Benson take top Great Basin honors

All-Conference hoops selections


Great Basin Conference “Player of the Year” Kaitana Martinez drives the baseline past Jerome’s Carrie Thibault during Hailey’s 41-39 home tournament victory over the Tigers Feb. 3 in Hailey. Photo by David N. Seelig

Reaping more of the rewards of an outstanding girls' basket-ball season, Wood River High School has its first "Coach of the Year" and "Player of the Year" honorees from the six-school Great Basin Conference.

Third-year coach Mendy Benson earned the top coach award and junior point guard Kaitana Martinez was "Player of the Year" when the confer-ence announced its post-season awards last week.

Benson led the Wolverines to a school-record 21-3 mark, its first GBC tournament title and second place in the State 4A tourney—best finish in school history. Martinez (17.0 ppg) was the team's leading scorer and set the school single-season scoring record, 408 points.

Junior Haylee Thompson joined Martinez on the All-GBC first team while teammates Cheyenne Swanson, Taylor Hayes and Allie Hesteness made honorable mention.

At the team's season-ending banquet March 3 in Hailey, coach Benson said about her varsity squad, "They really had an incredible, amazing season that I think this valley will be proud of for a long time."

Team awards presented at the banquet: Kaitana Martinez, "Finish Strong"; Taylor Hayes, "Best Defensive Player"; Chey-enne Swanson, "Most Inspira-tional"; and Hunter Thompson, "Most Improved."

For the Wood River boys' basketball team, junior Stone Sutton was an honorable men-tion pick. Here are the teams:

Great Basin girls

Coach of the Year: Mendy Ben-son (WRHS). Player of the Year: Kaitana Martinez (WRHS).

First team: Kaitana Martinez and Haylee Thompson (WRHS); Jazlyn Nielsen (Twin Falls); Carrie Thibault (Jerome); and Marlee Chandler (Minico).

Second team: Haylee Burnham (Jerome); Josie Jordan (Twin Falls); Taylor O'Connell (Minico); Allie Kelsey (Twin Falls); and Breyanna Burk (Can-yon Ridge).

Honorable mention: Cheyenne Swanson, Taylor Hayes and Allie Hesteness (WRHS); Alyssa Soloaga and Mallory Jund (Twin Falls); Karly Hudelson and Bonnie Detweiler (Can-yon Ridge); Frankie Garey (Jerome); Dayna Phillips (Minico); Aubrie Vale and Brooke Bowers (Burley).

Great Basin boys

Coach of the Year: Mike Graefe (Minico). Player of the Year: Kade Miller (Minico).

First team: Eric Harr (Twin Falls); Casey Christiansen and Kevin Jur-gensmeier (Minico); Jake Hollifield (Jerome); and Grant Jones (Canyon Ridge).

Second team: Robert Sanchez (Twin Falls); Bronson Miller and Edgar Espinosa (Minico); Spencer Parker (Jerome); and Alex Ridgeway (Canyon Ridge).

Honorable mention: Stone Sutton (WRHS); Alex Larson and Alex Greener (Burley); Austin Leavitt (Jerome); T.J. Ellis and Colton Stott (Twin Falls); Austin Thomas (Canyon Ridge); and Bryan Guzman (Minico).




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