Sports

Catcher Monique Brewer splurged for a pair of doubles as the McCall-Donnelly softball team celebrated home field advantage Monday by snapping a six-game slide with a win over Payette, 15-2.Payton Woolcott also went 2-for-3 at the plate as the Vandals exploded for 12 runs in the third inning to seize control of the Snake River Valley Conference tilt, which marked the McCall team’s first game this season at the M-D field.Brewer and Angie Dauphinais, who came up with a single, each drove in two runs as the Vandals delivered nine RBI total.M-D coach Jeff Walker said his players were excited to get a win on their own field.The game stood scoreless after two innings, but Vandal hitters soon found their groove.

Young athletes representing the McCall Wrestling Club competed in a trio of tournaments recently, including Lily Erekson, who earned All-American status by placing seventh at the Women’s National Freestyle Championships held over the weekend in Spokane, Washington.Erekson received the honors in the girls under-12 division, going 3-2 through the tournament despite it being her first time competing in freestyle wrestling.

Kallyn Rogers, Lily Gerzine and Samuel Huckaby all seized victories as the Cascade track and field team competed at a meet in Nampa on Friday.Rogers bested the field in the 300-meter hurdles at the competition, which was also attended by Victory Charter and a trio of schools from the 5A classification: Eagle, Nampa and Timberline.

The future looks bright for Rambler girls basketball after the Cascade Junior High team recently won a Long Pin Conference championship to conclude the 2024 season.The Ramblers met Garden Valley in the end-of-season tournament title game, played on March 8, and seized a Long Pin crown with a 24-9 victory over the rival Wolverines.The Cascade squad, made up of seventh and eighth graders, finished the season 11-3 overall.

Van Vinson pulled off a thrilling victory in the pole vault as the McCall-Donnelly track and field team competed at the Boise Relays on Saturday at Mountain View High School.George Speirs set new marks in both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races while placing among the top three in both.Matthew Daniels also snared a bronze finish in the 400, turning in another personal best mark of 49.87 seconds and delivering a coveted sub-50 (second) performance.“It was fantastic,” M-D coach Freddy Hernandez said of Saturday.With his winning leap, Vinson also matched a school record he set earlier in the season.The M-D senior again cleared 14 feet, 6 inches on Saturday to take the pole vault title at the well-regarded meet, which featured 40 schools from mostly 3A, 4A and 5A.Hernandez said Vinson’s third attempt at clearing 15 feet was also, “right there.”“I think 15 feet is definitely in the realm for him,” Hernandez said.Speirs ran his best 3,200 to date, improving a school record he has held since last season with Saturday’s time of 9 minutes, 21.85 seconds.

John Hatfield’s first high school home run highlighted another week of action for the McCall-Donnelly baseball team.Hatfield faced a 3-1 count when the Vandal senior sent the ball flying down the right field line – and over the fence – on a day he was perfect on three trips to the plate and drove in two runs.Perhaps M-D coach Riley Bevill sensed a big moment when he approached his all-league performer just prior.“I asked him to open up and take a full swing before the at bat,” Bevill said.

Before new McCall-Donnelly head coach Rob Pair was a state champion in wrestling, he was an undersized basketball player attending school in Cascade.“My superintendent, Vic Koshuta, caught me in the hall one day and said, ‘You’re much more of a wrestler than a basketball player.