Photo by Loren Orr
4 things you should not have missed from the 2023 Idaho spring state championships
Gatlin Bair photo by Ryan Sun/The Deseret News
Sensational Burley High School sprinter Gatlin Bair did not disappoint in his final track and field meet of the spring at the IHSAA championships.
Bair not only won Class 4A titles in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash Saturday, he left Mountain View High School with a couple more weekend career-best times.
During the preliminaries Friday, Bair ran the 100 in 10.15 seconds and the 200 in 20.41 - both personal bests. In the finals Saturday, Bair posted another 10.15 - his time in three of his past four 100 races. And he went 20.56 in the 200 for easy victories.
A four-star football prospect in 2024, Bair has won four IHSAA sprint times in the past two seasons. He won the 100 and 200 titles in Class 3A for Gooding High School in 2022.
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SECOND-YEAR OWYHEE SWEEPS CLASS 5A BASEBALL, SOFTBALL
Owyhee High School is getting used to adding to its trophy case.
Gonzaga commit Ryder Cutlip got the pitching win - and erased an early deficit with an RBI single in the Storm's 5-2 win over Lake City at Wolfe Field in Caldwell, giving the second-year school back-to-back IHSAA baseball titles.
Nick McDaniel's two-run single highlighted the Storm's four-run fifth inning to break the game open.
In softball, Mantha Hatzenbeller hit two home runs as part of her 3-for-4 showing, and the Storm handled Rigby, 13-3, in the state finals at Thunder Ridge High School.
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SKYVIEW GOES HARD ROUTE FOR CLASS 4A SOFTBALL CROWN
5A State Softball Championship - Skyview vs Rocky Mountain - Photo Credit Loren Orr Photography
Defending Class 4A softball champion Skyview survived a big Pocatello rally in the second game of the championship series to win back-to-back IHSAA titles with 7-3 and 12-10 victories at Twin Falls High School.
The Hawks won the 5A crown a year ago over Owyhee before moving down a classification.
Skyview dropped a 13-1 semifinal decision to the previously-unbeaten Thunder earlier Saturday, meaning it had to work its way through the consolation bracket to get another shot.
Pocatello trailed 9-2 before rallying to tie the game with seven runs in the sixth inning.
But run-scoring singles by Rayann Brown, Lily Bittinger and Sophie Carngella in the eighth inning gave Skyview a 12-9 lead - and eventually the state title.
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SKYLINE GIRL FASTEST SPRINTER EVER
A week after Skyline's Claire Petersen set the all-time Idaho girls mark in the 100 - 11.83 - the Grizzlies' senior lowered it to a wind-aided (2.3) 11.81 to win the IHSAA title at Mountain View High School.
It was a big day for Petersen, who also swept the 100 hurdles (14.34) and 300 hurdles (personal-best 43.06), winning the longer race by more than three seconds.
Petersen, who led the Grizzlies to their first girls team title since 1993, has signed with Utah State.
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