Taylor seizes early rodeo lead
Seeking to regain her 5th District high school rodeo overall title as a senior, Wood River High's Haillie Taylor got off to a promising start as the girls' leader of the two-day Glenns Ferry prep rodeo Friday and Saturday, April 20-21.
Taylor won the breakaway roping (3.510 seconds) and pole bending (21.856) events of Saturday's second go-round and built an early 68-51 overall lead over last year's overall winner Darby Fox of Glenns Ferry.
In third place with 48 points after one rodeo is 2010 overall winner Valene Lickley of Valley. That means that the last three 5th District girls' winners—2009 queen Taylor, Lickley and Fox—are 1-2-3 after the first of five district rodeos.
Taylor (14 points barrel racing, 17 breakaway, 15 goat tying, 17 poles, 5 team roping) earned points across the range of events at Glenns Ferry. On Friday night, she placed 3-4-4-4 in barrels, breakaway, goats and poles, but she stepped it up Saturday for her winning rides plus third in goats and sixth in team roping with partner Pete MacGregor of Jerome (19.950).
Three members of the Carey Rodeo Team also earned points.
Rookie contender Kylie Castle placed fifth in Saturday's pole bending (24.449). Taylor Castle placed eighth in Friday's barrel racing (19.029). Matt Whitworth teamed with Valley's Cole Millican for sixth in Friday's team roping (27.700).
Boys' leader after one rodeo is Gooding's Jared Parke 42-40 over Brogan Bennett, Gooding. Next up: The Jerome rodeo April 27-28—Friday's rodeo at 7 p.m. and Saturday's at 2 p.m.
Wolverines add 'Hawks to win total
With just two weeks to go until the state-qualifying Great Basin Conference tournament, the Wood River High School tennis team picked up another league triumph last Thursday.
Coach Vicki Johnston's squad won by a combined 11-1 score (6-0 boys, 5-1 girls) over the Canyon Ridge Riverhawks on the high school tennis courts in Hailey.
The Wolverines (23-3 in sets won, 144-39 in games won) had their way in boy's singles led by No. 1 Karl Wilander and helped by straight-set victories by No. 2 Quentin Dowdle and No. 3 Michael Niedrich.
Wood River (9-3 dual meets, 7-0 in league play) travels to the Capital Invitational tournament in Boise Friday and Saturday, April 27-28 and then wraps up its league slate at Minico Tuesday, May 1 and home against Jerome for "Senior Day" on Thursday, May 3.
Here are results from Thursday's Wood River-Canyon Ridge meet:
WR 11, Canyon Ridge 1
Boys' singles: 1—Karl Wilander (WR) 6-0, 6-0 over Erik Lewis (CR). 2—Quentin Dowdle (WR) 6-2, 6-2 over Ivan Kranjc (CR). 3—Michael Niedrich (WR) 6-1, 6-1 over Jarrod Berry (CR).
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Girls' singles: 1—Kenzi Baggett (CR) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 over Lily Richards (WR). 2—Margaret Reutter (WR) 6-0, 6-0 over Jessica Wilson (CR). 3—Audrey Brassil (WR) 6-2, 6-4 over Annie Romney (CR).
Boys' doubles: 1—Raleigh Grossbaum-Charlie Grabow (WR) 6-0, 6-1 over Cade Summers-Neil Kauppila (CR). 2—Josh Morell-Cole Caminiti (WR) 6-0, 6-0 over Austin McEwen-Conner Reigen (CR).
Girls' doubles: 1—Sloan Storey-Erin Murphy (WR) 6-0, 6-0 over Hailey Sandison-Maddie Dahlquist (CR). 2—Tate Morell-Alex Taylor (WR) 6-0, 6-0 over Lindsay Mancari-Torrie Arritt (CR).
Mixed doubles: 1—Stephen Pfeiffer-Hannah Baybutt (WR) 6-1, 6-2 over Chase Petty-Kyla Rogers (CR). 2—Andrew Graves-Haley Cutler (WR) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 over Creighton Adams-Staci Baird (CR).
Swanson stretches discus record
A memorable senior year for Wood River High student-athlete Cheyenne Swanson ratcheted up another notch Thursday, April 19 during a five-school 4A prep track and field meet at Burley High.
Swanson, an important member of Wolverine state tournament teams in soccer and basketball this school year, extended her own school record in the discus throw with a winning 122-11 toss—two feet and seven inches better than the record she set at the Buhl Rotary Invitational meet April 12.
The two-time defending State 4A discus champ, Swanson owns the third-best girls' discus throw in Idaho so far this spring, according to athletic.net tabulations. Her 122-11 toss ranks behind only Sandpoint soph Nikole Alamillo (131-4.5) among 4A athletes.
Swanson also won shotput (34-1) at Burley. She led the Hailey girls to a 20-point team finish, good for fourth place behind Jerome (162.5 points), Century of Pocatello (76.5), Minico of Rupert (76) and ahead of Burley (7).
Her senior teammate, Ben Stout, collected first-place wins in all three distance events—800-meter run (2:01.4), 1600m (4:44.0) and the 3200m (10:19.4) ahead of second-place teammate Chase England (10:24.9).
Girls' coach J.C. Nemecek said, "The girls had a good day. Though small in number with 16 girls, 12 of whom were at the Burley meet, the girls show spirit, a willingness to work and not a small amount of 'grit'."
Besides Swanson's discus throw, personal records by Hailey girls were set at Burley by Dalyah Reel-Hughes, Emilia Bingham, Lauren Bryant, Telar McClure and Janel Passey.
Next up is the Minico Invitational meet Friday, April 27 in Rupert. Here are Wood River efforts in third through fifth places at Burley:
3rd places—Josh King long jump (18-4.5); girls' sprint medley relay (Emilia Bingham, Kimberly Herrera, Lauren Bryant, Janel Passey) in 2:15.4; and girls' 4x400m relay (Nicole Pratt, Telar McClure, Dani McLaughlin, Kenya Schott) in 5:00.2.
5th places—Jade Atkinson 3200m (13:56.4); Nicole Pratt 300m intermediate hurdles (56.6); and Chase England 800m (2:16.1).
7th places—Chase England 1600m (4:59.0).
