Highlights and top performances from final day of 2022 Idaho Track and Field State Championships

BOISE - Now that’s how you end a season.

Saturday marked the final day of competition of both the Idaho Class 5A/4A Track and Field Championships at Boise’s Dona Larsen Park and the 3A/2A/1A Championships at Middleton High School.

Here are the top highlights from both meets.

Performances are in alphabetical order.

BOISE’S MASON LAWYER, LIAM MURRAY & PORTER COFFIELD COMBINED FOR 10 TITLES

No other team had a trio of athletes end up with more medals.

The seniors dominated together and individually.

Those three, along with Cooper Smith, were a part of the record-breaking Class 5A 4x200-meter relay team. They set a new all-classification record in their win at 1 minute, 26.97 seconds. The same trifecta, along with Tucker Briggs, teamed up again to win the 4x400 (3:22.67).

“It’s amazing,” Murray said. “I’m just super privileged to be able to run with such a great group of guys. There’s a lot of great competitors in the state, but I was blessed to be with those guys in particular.”

Individually, Coffield edged Meridian’s Caleb Woodland at the finish line to win the 300 hurdles with a personal record time of 38.49 seconds.

Murray, a Dartmouth signee, defended his 400 crown with a personal and all-classification record of 47.50.

And Lawyer, who is signed to Washington State, was dubbed the fastest man with titles in the 100 (10.46) and 200 (21.62).

“I’m super excited because I feel like winning four is a really hard deal,” Lawyer said. “So I’m leaving something behind for other athletes to go for.”

GATLIN BAIR, KIMBERLY: 100, 200 & TRIPLE JUMP

Bear snagged state titles in the Class 3A boys 100- (10.72) and the 200-meter (21.54) sprints, along with the triple jump (45 feet, 7 inches). The 10.72-second time in the 100 was a new classification record.

JAXON BAIR, KIMBERLY: 110 HURDLES, LONG JUMP & POLE VAULT

Not to be outdone by his younger brother, the University of Arkansas signee, came away with three titles as well in the Class 3A 110 hurdles (14.29), long jump (24 feet, 0.75 inches) and the pole vault (14 feet).

ABBY HANCOCK, RIGBY: 100, 200 & LONG JUMP

The junior was just hoping to make the medal stand at least once.

She did a little bit better than that.

Hancock snatched the Class 5A girls long jump (18 feet, 4.5 inches) title to break her own personal record by almost a foot before being deemed the fastest girl in 5A with wins in the 100 (12.03) and the 200 (24.85) to walk away with three gold medals. Hancock had never won a single state title before Saturday.

“I’m really surprised,” Hancock said while laughing. “I didn’t really expect it. But it was pretty exciting.”

LANDON HELMS, EMMETT: 110 HURDLES & 300 HURDLES

It was a bittersweet day for the senior on Friday. Yes, he won two state titles (long jump, pole vault), but his winning mark in the pole vault of 15-0, was well below what he’s used to putting up.

Helms made up for that and then some Saturday.

He completed his “redemption year” by going 4-for-4 at state with titles in the Class 4A boys 110 and 300 hurdles.

Helms smashed the 110 all-classification record of 14.08 that had stood since 1985 (Capital’s Darrin Harris) with a time of 13.69 - tied for the 11th fastest time in the nation this season. It made him the first athlete since Eagle's Donovan Kilmartin in 2003 to win three 110 hurdles and pole vault titles. Kilmartin was a three-time NCAA champion and six-time All-American at the University of Texas.

Then a year after blacking out in the 300, Helms returned to win the very same event for the first time in his prolific career. The Texas A&M signee ends that career with a total of eight state championships.

“I just hope that what I have achieved, helps inspire other kids to go out and set the bar high for themselves,” Helms said. “Because if you would have asked me if my senior year I would be able to achieve the marks that I have this year, I probably would have told you that was pretty far-fetched.”

EVA LOWDER, CENTENNIAL: POLE VAULT

One day after Emmett’s Tatum Richards set an all-classification record in the pole vault at 13 feet even, Lowder shattered it.

The junior jumped 13 feet, 9 inches, which is now the ninth-best mark in the nation this season, to take the Class 5A girls pole vaulting title.

LAUREN MCCALL, TIMBERLINE: 400, 300 HURDLES, 4X100 RELAY, 4X200 RELAY

The junior showed that basketball isn’t her only forte.

McCall, whose late steal and 3-pointer lifted the girls basketball team to a state title in the winter, went 4-for-4 on the track.

She came within less than a half a second of the all-classification record in the Class 5A girls 400 with a winning time of 56 seconds flat. McCall then claimed the 300 hurdles (44.11) before setting school records in the 4x100 (48.39) and 4x200 (1:42.79) with Avery Navest, Ella Boson and Brynn Celani. McCall ran the second leg in both events.

These were the first track and field titles of McCall’s career.

“I think basketball is what’s defined me through my life and people just think track is just something I do too,” McCall said. “But today I showed I am really good. I think it just shows how much competitiveness , but also the athletic ability I have.”

JAMES ONANUBOSI, BISHOP KELLY: 100, 200 & 4X100 RELAY

The University of Arizona signee swept the Class 4A sprinting events in the 100 (10.54 seconds) and the 200 (21.96) dashes before setting a classification record in the 4x100 relay with teammates Cam Davis, Cole Miller and Cormac Mullin at 42.16.

CLAIRE PETERSEN, SKYLINE: 100 & 300 HURDLES

Petersen began her day by clipping her right leg on one of the last hurdles in the 100. The slight mistake cost her the defense of her 100 hurdle crown with a fourth-place finish.

But the junior rebounded by setting a new classification record in the Class 4A girls 100 (12.03). It was within one-hundreths of a second of an all-classification record. She then won the 300 for the second year in a row with a time of 45.14 - also a personal best.

“My coach told me you still have a chance to have a great day,” Petersen said. “So I just listened to that and kept telling myself that. So I just went out there and took it one race at a time and gave it my all and everything worked out.”

She has six overall titles to her name with still another year left.

LOGAN SMITH, BOISE: 800, 4X400 RELAY & 4X800 RELAY

What an end to a pretty amazing career.

Smith, who will play soccer at the University of Stanford next season, went out on a high note by repeating in the Class 5A girls 800 (2:09.07), 4x400 (3:57.10) and 4x800 (9:18.92) relays.

She won the 4x800 with Lydia Nance, Allie Bruce and Jamie Hamlin on Friday before partitioning up with Nance, Sophia Clark and Kunie Hirai in the 4x400 on the final event of the day Saturday. She ran the anchor legs in both relays.

But her real highlight was in the 800 where she shattered the all-classification record by more than two seconds and put up a top-20 time in the nation. Boise’s Maggie Liebich, who is now at Princeton, had held the previous record (2:11.26), since 2018. Smith even got to keep the bullet from the start gun as a souvenir for breaking the record.

“It was just so much fun,” Smith said. “Obviously, today was a really emotional day with it being my last track meet ever, so to get that bullet and for them to say that I got the record, was really a perfect finish to the day and my career.”

It all helped Boise High lap the field by 31 points to repeat as team champion.

(All photos by Loren Orr)

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