State track roundup: Six records fall. Boise-area athletes clean up on first day
Capital head coach Bryan Stith and jumps coach Darrin Harris didn’t tell Eden Francis she already owned the tiebreaker in the 6A girls long jump.
It seemed to serve as the perfect motivation.
Francis posted a leap of 17 feet, 11 inches on her final attempt to leave no doubt about her victory Friday at the Idaho high school state track and field championships at Mountain View High School.
Going into her final jump, Francis and Rigby junior Brinley Bybee both led with a mark of 17-6.25, but Francis would have won because she reached the distance in the prelims and Bybee did so on her last jump of the finals.
“My coach didn’t tell me that I had the tiebreaker, so I wasn’t sure,” Francis said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I need to get this jump.’ So back there I was like, ‘Breathe. You’re fine. You’re gonna jump far.’”
Francis, a junior, is an all-around athlete at Capital, competing in volleyball, basketball and track. She hopes to become a heptathlete in college, following in her dad’s footsteps.
Keron Francis was a decathlete at Boise State and an All-American in the javelin.
“It’s really exciting that she still brought it at the end, and I’m just really happy for her,” Stith said. “She’s one of the leaders of our team and obviously an outstanding athlete being able to do all that she can do.”
Later in the day Friday, Francis won her heat of the 100-meter hurdles to qualify second overall for Saturday’s final in 15.25 seconds. She added a fifth-place showing in the javelin, and she’ll also run a leg on the Eagles’ top-seeded 4x100 relay.
Here’s a rundown of the big news, Boise-area winners and meet record setters from Day 1 of the 6A/5A state meet:
▪ Christine Huckins of Capital won four events at last year’s state meet, setting overall records in the 100, 200, 4x100 and 4x200. But the junior won’t get the chance to defend her titles this weekend after a medical emergency. Huckins was admitted to the hospital earlier this week and, although she is OK, she was not medically cleared to participate, Stith said.
▪ Reigning 6A state cross country champion Paisley Taylor of Meridian led from start to finish in the girls 3,200, crossing the finish line about 90 meters ahead of her competition in 10:46.21. She’ll compete in the 1,600, 800 and 4x400 relay on Saturday.
“I’m just excited to run,” Taylor said. “They each get faster each race, so we’ll see what I have left and it’ll be fun.”
▪ Rocky Mountain sophomore Lauren Rynhart cleared 11-6 in the 6A girls pole vault on her first attempt, winning the tiebreaker with Rigby’s Lizzy Poston and Mountain View’s Lilja Walmsley, who cleared the same height on their second and third attempts, respectively.
▪ Mountain View senior Joseph Miraya finished off the season unbeaten in the 6A boys shot put with a winning throw of 58-5.5. He’ll go for the sweep as the No. 1 seed in Saturday’s discus.
▪ Burley senior Alex Rushton entered the state meet ranked No. 15 in the nation in the boys high jump with a clearance of 7-0 this season. Although Rushton didn’t reach his personal best on Friday, he won the 5A competition for the second year in a row with a height of 6-8, tying the classification record shared by Moscow’s Wade Schumaker from 2012.
▪ With a personal-best throw of 163-9, Bishop Kelly senior Reed Martin won the 5A boys discus by more than 18 feet over runner-up finisher Blackfoot senior Dawandey Dillus (145-6). Martin is the No. 2 seed in Saturday’s shot put.
▪ Mountain View junior Kami Clayton wiped away tears of joy while hugging friends and family after winning the 6A girls shot put title with a throw of 41-11.50. She bested runner-up Kelsey Carroll (38-0) of Coeur d’Alene by nearly 4 feet.
“I finally did it,” Clayton said. “I was so happy that I just couldn’t hold my emotions together and I started crying.”
Defending champion and No. 1 seed McKenna Chavez of Capital missed Friday’s shot put final while playing for the Eagles in the state softball tournament.
▪ Emmett junior Ryllie Smith had the fifth-best throw among qualified competitors in the 5A girls discus. But she unleashed a career-best toss of 139-1 to win a state championship over defending champ Eva Grimm (131-7) of Blackfoot. It was the No. 2 distance in the state this season.
▪ Finishing second in the 6A boys long jump last season stuck with Meridian senior Carver Martin. He wasn’t going to let that happen again. Martin won with a mark of 22-10.75, which he posted on his opening attempt, to edge Madison’s Bryce Dredge by 3.25 inches.
“I was just trying to be calm and not worry about anything,” Carver said. “My coaches told me to not worry about anything and just go out there and have fun.”
▪ Bishop Kelly senior Owen Kane saved his best for last, going 44-7.75 to win the 5A boys triple jump on his final attempt of the day. Kane will have three more shots at the podium in the long jump, 4x100 relay and 4x200 relay on Saturday.
“I just wanted it more,” Kane said. “I was really hungry coming into it. I had that mindset that I was gonna win, and that helped.”
▪ Rocky Mountain senior Paul Anderson matched his career best with a clearance of 16-0 in the 6A boys pole vault. Anderson and Rigby’s Garrett Merwin were the only athletes left at 16-0, and Anderson was the only one to clear the height, sealing the victory.
▪ In the first heat of the 6A boys 110 hurdles, Nampa senior Tegon Lords set a classification record with his time of 13.86. But Highland junior Spencer Van Orden one-upped Lords in the second heat, clocking a 13.69 to match the overall meet record set by Emmett’s Landon Helms in 2022. Both runners will compete in the final Saturday.
Lords got a measure of revenge in the prelims of the 300 hurdles, winning the first heat in an overall meet record of 37.20. Van Orden then won the second heat in 37.30. Both times were better than the previous record of 37.44 set by Borah’s AJ Boully in 2010, but only Lords’ will stand.
▪ Centennial senior and Washington State volleyball signee Eliana Ti’a won the 6A girls javelin with a throw of 113-4 on her very first attempt of the day.
“Every throw I was nervous today, so just to have that mark first throw was a relief,” Ti’a said. “After that throw I was just calm.”
▪ Emmett senior Kenyon Carter got a classification record out of the way in the 5A boys 300 hurdle prelims. Carter won the first heat in 37.66, besting the previous record of 37.82 by Rigby’s Scott Mecham in 2012.
▪ Mountain View junior Quincy Keller made a statement in the prelims of the 6A girls 200. She broke the overall meet record of reigning champion Huckins with her time of 23.97 in the opening heat. Huckins won state last year in 24.16. Keller was also the top qualifier in the 100 (11.98). Both finals are Saturday.
▪ Rocky Mountain steadily gained ground as the baton passed from Olivia Weatherford to Solana Lucas to Hallie Heemeyer to Emme Hamm, culminating with a victory in the 6A girls 4x800 relay in a season-best and state-leading 9:17.31. Hamm got the baton in third place and passed Mountain View and Timberline runners on the second-to-last lap to anchor the win.
▪ Timberline’s Nick Janecko, Ethan Derderian, William Cox and Mason Pierce ran the No. 16 time in the nation this season to win the 6A boys 4x800 relay in 7:43.06.
▪ Bishop Kelly anchor Ella Klekas briefly lost the lead on the backstretch of the final lap, but she rallied down the final stretch to combine with teammates Hadley Beckley, Sophia Lanfear and Isabel Clough for a win in the 5A girls 800 sprint medley relay in 1:50.23.
▪ Bishop Kelly’s Mason Schweitzer, Dylan Gale, Beck Humphrey and Isaac Edwards dominated from start to finish in the 5A boys 1,600 sprint medley relay, setting an overall meet record in 3:30.00. The previous record was 3:30.25 set by Moscow in 2014.
▪ After the first day of action, team points leaders were the Capital girls (40), Rocky Mountain boys (30), Pocatello girls (25) and Bishop Kelly boys (36).
