High school tennis and track and field teams from Blaine County and Camas County picked up the spring pace at competitions last week:
Bruins escape with 8-4
tennis wins
There wasn’t enough daylight left for the Wood River High School and Community School prep tennis teams to square off and finish Thursday’s tri-meet on the Hailey courts with visiting Twin Falls.
Yet both Wood River and the Community School Cutthroats got to play Twin Falls—and Twin Falls emerged with 8-4 team wins in each. The Wolverines earned boys’ singles wins from Clay Cutler and Taylor Cooper. The Cutthroats won two in girls’ singles from Olivia Ott and Hannah Conn.
Wood River coach Marcia Grabow said, “Usually when Wood River and Twin Falls meet there are some outstanding matches and this was no exception.
“Danny Graves and Bruin Brad Pierce had the match of the evening in the No. 1 boy singles. They played three long sets with rallies averaging at least eight shots compared to most rallies that average 3-4 shots at the most. Both players demonstrated strong mental focus and consistent shot-making.”
Pierce, a junior who shared last year’s Great Basin Conference mixed doubles title with Karin Olsen, prevailed 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. Another competitive match in No. 1 boys’ doubles swung the Bruins way when Andy Carter-Matthew Sato nipped Stephen Pfeiffer and Andrew Graves 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
Wood River’s No. 1 mixed doubles team of Andrew Pearson and Haley Cutler demonstrated an arsenal of shot-making that kept Twin Falls off balance in a 6-1, 6-2 Hailey win.
Overall the Twin Falls girls beat Wood River 4.5 to 1.5, and the Bruin boys edged Wolverines 3.5 to 2.5.
The Cutthroats got girls’ singles wins over Twin Falls from No. 1 Olivia Ott 6-1, 6-2 and No. 2 Hannah Conn 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Enjoying split-set success was the No. 1 mixed team of Reed Roudabush and captain Jolie Blair 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Displaying great energy and volleys at the net, No. 2 boys’ doubles Gavin Blair and Dan DuFur recorded a 6-1, 6-2 win.
Other Cutthroat singles players were Willis Sanchez-duPont, Pierson Carlsen, Keegan Whitelaw and Autumn Fluetsch, plus the doubles teams of Emily Siegel-Sami Bunting, Sophia DeKlotz-Grace Cherp, and captain Trenor Gould-Roger Figge.
Next: Cutthroat tennis players visit Gooding today, Wednesday and Wood River goes meets Canyon Ridge in Twin Falls on Thursday.
Wood River match results against Twin Falls follow:
Twin Falls 8, WRHS 4
· Boys’ singles: 1—Brad Pierce (TF) 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 over Danny Graves (WR). 2—Clay Cutler (WR) 6-3, 6-2 over Tommy Malone (TF). 3—Taylor Cooper (WR) 6-1, 6-0 over Espen Mayes (TF).
· Girls’ singles: 1—Haley Orton (TF) 6-4, 6-3 over Tayte Kelly (WR). 2—Melinda Rondina (TF) 6-0, 6-2 over Manuela Cortina-Otero (WR). 3—Taryn Trotter (TF) 6-0, 6-0 over Kai Curtis (WR).
· Boys’ doubles: 1—Andy Carter-Matthew Sato (TF) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 over Stephen Pfeiffer-Andrew Graves (WR). 2—Sam Cox-Quinton Downs (TF) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 over Oskar Wilander-Chandler Gifford (WR).
· Girls’ doubles: 1—Tate Morell-Megan Murphy (WR) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 over Lexi Brodin-Jordan Rogers (TF). 2—Emily Perry-Emily Pilling (TF) 6-0, 6-0 over Carol Hoffman-Sophia Coplin (WR).
· Mixed doubles: 1—Andrew Pearson-Haley Cutler (WR) 6-1, 6-2 over Bret Burch-Morgan Biggs (TF). 2—Cameron Wasden-Jade Browne (TF) 6-2, 6-4 over Brady Delgadillo-Gabby Whittaker (WR).
Hailey runners go the distance at Wyatt meet
Senior distance runner Janel Passey of the Wood River High School track and field team posted more solid results and the only Wolverine first-place finish of Thursday’s Angie Wyatt Invitational in Filer.
Passey won the 3200-meter run in a personal-best 12:31.61 and placed second to Gooding senior Rachel Youren in the 1600m and 800m runs during the 16-school meet for 4A/3A/2A/1A schools.
She scored 26 points and helped the Wolverine girls to a fifth-place team finish with 71 points behind Twin Falls (130), Jerome (113), Gooding (100) and Buhl (76).
Posting the 10th-best Gem State 4A two-mile time of the young season, Passey captured the 3200m by nearly 17 seconds, with junior teammate Kenya Schott third (13:01.25).
She also tangled with last year’s State 3A 3200m and 1600m runner-up Youren in 800m and 1600m. Youren won 800m (2:28.36) by less than four seconds over Passey (2:32.22), whose time was a personal best and fifth-fastest in 4A. Youren won 1600m (5:43.32) by 14 seconds over Passey (5:57.28).
Wood River’s girls had two other second places at Filer.
Hailey’s 4x100m relay of Pilar Pennell, Michelle Mason, Bailey Rierden and Sara Lichtenberg (54.87 seconds) finished less than a second off the winning Twin Falls pace.
Lichtenberg, a sophomore, was second in high jump at 5-0 and posted a personal-best 31-3 in taking fifth in triple jump. Sophomore sprinter Mason, meanwhile, finished fourth in the 100m dash (13.79) and 200m (28.84, personal record).
For the Hailey boys, junior distance runner Alexis Gonzalez picked up the only points with a fifth in 1600m (4:55.69).
Other Wolverines with personal bests for the 23-member travel team were Alberto Gonzalez, Irvin Gonzalez, Cormac Heneghan, Alek Higley. D.J. McMurdo, Noah Russell, Brandon Yagla, Pilar Pennell, Emily Stone and Emily Todd.
Scoring points for the Camas County Mushers of Fairfield at the Angie Wyatt were senior Isaac Simon (3rd high jump 6-0, 8th triple jump 38-11), senior Taylor Gorringe (5th shotput 32-1.25 and 4th discus 96-6), senior Jessica Lanier (5th discus 92-9) and freshman Leah Stewart (7th long jump 13-2).
Relays are helping Carey keep pace
Carey School track and field athletes enjoyed relay successes and another first-place pole vault finish by senior Daphne Kirkland (6-0) at Thursday’s 10-team Valley Invitational prep meet for 2A/1A schools on the Kimberly High School oval.
Placing second in the close race with Oakley was the Carey 4x100-meter girls’ relay squad of Daphne Kirkland, Clarissa Kirkland, Arriana Nielson and Kelsey Barker (56.30 seconds).
Carey boasted a pair of third-place 4x400m relay squads. The boys were Joe Parke, Colton Metzler, Tori Alvarez and Christian Zarate (4:08.00) and the girls were Barker, Hailee Johnson, Lilly Rivera and Medin Cenarrusa (4:47.00, just 8 seconds behind Hagerman).
Also placing third for six more team points was the Panther sprint medley boys’ relay team of Nate Adamson, Luis Garcia, Toby Whitworth and Collin Whitby (4:16.0, 7.6 seconds off Valley’s pace).
Carey’s individual fourth places came from Christian Zarate 200m dash (24.10), Natalie Villanueva 1600m run (7:09.00), Medin Cenarrusa 100m high hurdles (18.30) and Joe Parke high jump (5-8). Placing fourth was the girls’ sprint medley of the Kirkland sisters, Barker and Cenarrusa (2:09.5).
The Valley Vikings (119 points) won the girls’ meet over Raft River of Malta (109), with Carey tying Hansen for fifth, 59 points. Raft River (153) outscored Hagerman (128) for the boys’ title, Carey (61) in sixth.
