Idaho riders are returning home from the National High School Finals Rodeo in Lincoln, Nebraska, with plenty of hardware.

Here’s a look at Wednesday’s competition for Team Idaho at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Nebraska.

The National High School Finals Rodeo in Lincoln, Neb., is underway and here’s a look at what’s happening on Tuesday with performances four through six and the Idaho cowboys and cowgirls who will be competing.

The National High School Finals Rodeo kicks off on Friday with the beginning of several days of the competition in the Queen's Contest.

Attention Division I college golf coaches.

The accolades continue to roll in for Jaxon Sorenson.

When he arrived for a photoshoot to document his final accolade as an Idaho Falls Tiger, Zac Bright wore black shorts and a white t-shirt, his blonde locks tied in a bun on his head. The morning sun hung in the sky, breathing warm temperatures before the clock struck 9 a.m.

Claire Petersen the eighth-grader could hardly wait to graduate, pull on the Skyline uniform and move on to high school competition. So when she completed her middle school track meets, she would venture online and compare her times to the ones high schoolers were recording, trying to find w…

First team

First team

Chase Meyer calls himself a dork. After every season, Skyline’s track coach likes to score the next year’s state meet, taking into account times, who’s returning, who’s not.

The meet might as well be hardwired into Brett Hill’s brain with how well he remembers it.

SHELLEY – One of the most decorated and accomplished area high school wrestlers of the past decade has signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Providence in Montana and continue his wrestling career.

GOSHEN – Firth High School has always had a long tradition of producing good, fundamentally sound athletes. Hailey Barker is one of those, and on Saturday evening, she signed her letter of intent to attend Columbia Basin Community College in Pasco, Wash.

When Jaxon Sorenson showed up to practice as a tall, skinny freshman, Idaho Falls coach Trent Johnson had a dilemma.

FIRST TEAM

The 2021 baseball season may have seemed normal compared to a year ago, when COVID-19 sent a wrecking ball through all things sports related.

State rodeo champions were crowned this weekend with cowboys and cowgirls earning coveted spots to the National High School Finals Rodeo July 18-24 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

First team

POCATELLO — Applause rained down on Cooper Cooke, who pushed himself up off the bleachers and headed toward Pocatello Downs’ centerstage to receive the award that he had worked — and injured himself — so hard for. A three-time all-around state rodeo champion after his performance Saturday, C…

Think back, for just a second, to March 2020. The pandemic was beginning, of course, but Tammy Sorensen was also considering a return from retirement.

If you’ve never watched Jordyn Torgerson pitch, never watched the sophomore sizzle a fastball or twirl a rise ball or toss a curveball that sneaks into the outside corner like a boomerang, you’re missing out on something spellbinding. It isn’t even that West Jefferson’s precocious pitcher hy…

POCATELLO – Brenna Brown may have saved her best for the short go-round in the girls’ cow cutting event at the Idaho State High School Rodeo Finals, and it was enough to propel her to a state championship.

POCATELLO – Joe Zebarth is a man of few words. Only 15 years old and a sophomore at Kimberly High School, he is also the defending state champion in the boy's cow cutting competition at the Idaho state high school finals rodeo.

The ballots have been counted and the High Country Conference has announced the all-conference team for softball for 2021.

The Hillcrest doubles team of Raegan and Berklee Olsen would likely have challenged for a state title last year, but when coronavirus shut down the season, the duo didn’t mope around, instead they got better.

The season didn’t end the way Tegan Hartman would have liked.

POCATELLO — It’s finally here.

The Idaho Falls boys varsity lacrosse team finished second in the Class B State Championships at College of Idaho, losing to Mountain View High School 17-5.

BLACKFOOT – One of the oldest events if not the oldest event in rodeo is calf roping.

BLACKFOOT — One of the fastest growing and most popular events in high school rodeo is becoming goat tying. For the young ladies, nothing has the speed, strength and ability requirements of goat tying, which requires a fast horse, athleticism on behalf of the athletes, and speed because it i…

BLACKFOOT – The Idaho State High School Rodeo Finals begin Saturday at the Bannock County Fairgrounds with berths to the national finals on the line.

The second he completed the first long jump of his career, Tao Johnson didn’t know what to think. Had he jumped with the right technique? Was his mark, 21’3, up to par? Maybe his competition wasn’t as tight as he expected.

Rylee Blanchard of Compass Academy is headed to Dakota State University in South Dakota on a softball scholarship.

Idaho Falls was well represented on the High Country Conference baseball all-conference list released Wednesday.

Alex Carr wasn’t sure she wanted to play softball in college, but when the opportunity came along late last year, the Idaho Falls pitcher jumped at the chance.

On Tuesday morning, when Skyline senior Sophie Anderson put pen to paper and finalized her commitment to play volleyball at Utah State Eastern, she felt relieved. Excited.

At state tennis, the Hillcrest girls doubles team of Raegan and Berklee Olsen won the 4A state title on Saturday, and the mixed doubles team of Daniel Crofts and Nicole Tran also captured a state title.

Catching up with state tennis, the Hillcrest girls doubles team of Raegan and Berklee Olsen won the 4A state title on Saturday, and the mixed doubles team of Daniel Crofts and Nicole Tran also captured a state title.

EAGLE — Zac Bright bowed his head and stared at the ground, like a magician from The Prestige waiting to wow the audience with the trick he’s perfected from years of practice. He wore his orange Idaho Falls top, black shorts, no shoes. The crowd behind him, a packed audience at Saturday’s 5A…

EAGLE — Chase Meyer has been Skyline’s head track and field coach for six years, 13 counting his years as an assistant. He’s seen his fair share of athletes. Some of the Grizzlies’ best have competed under his watch, seniors and freshmen alike.

NAMPA – At 7 a.m. Saturday morning, Nampa softball coach Stephen Imbriani – helping out as his school hosted the 2A state tournament – ventured to Target and began tossing white towels in his cart.

Firth was the lone area baseball team to win its consolation game at the state tournaments on Saturday.

In Friday’s state softball action, only one local team played into the next day of action: 2A’s West Jefferson.

Medals were handed out at Friday’s 3A/2A/1A Track and Field State Championships.

Freshmen were well represented at Friday’s round of the Track and Field State Championships.

NAMPA — Few are the dents in the armor of West Jefferson, the Class 2A power that blew through both the regular season and district tournament en route to its fourth straight state tournament appearance.

After a disappointing opening day on Thursday, all four area baseball teams had impressive showings Friday at the state tournaments.

MERIDIAN — On the morning of the biggest game of her life, Kaliann Scoresby tossed pitches in the batting cages at Mountain View, preparing to start for Thunder Ridge in her team’s 5A state opener against Timberline. Scoresby, a freshman, was making her first state appearance — in her school…

SHELLEY – Over the past several years, Maddie Lempka set and reset the Shelley High School standard for high jumping and her current record of 5-7 is set to fall once again, probably during this week’s 4A Idaho State Track and Field Championships.

The weather is warming and the school year is coming to an end, which is as good a sign as any that it’s time for state track.

SHELLEY — It isn’t often that a baseball player from Idaho is granted a scholarship to take his game to the next level.