Four Mountain West Teams Make NCAA Basketball Tournament

In so many ways, it would have been better if Utah, BYU and TCU had stayed in the Mountain West for this is and would have been an amazing conference.  One or more of them may rue the day they left.


UNLV will take on Colorado in the first round while San Diego State gets North Carolina State, New Mexico matches up against Long Beach and Colorado State faces Murray State.

Boise State Having Trouble with Northern Illinois

The Lady Broncos lost yesterday and today, they are down 2-1 after 3.

Broncos Split in Missouri

Aubray Zell tied a school record with 14 strikeouts as Boise State blanked Alcorn State 4-0 at the DeMarini Invitaitonal in Columbia, Missouri.  The win took some of the sting out of Boise State's 8-0 loss to #12 Missouri earlier in the day.


Mackenzie Whyte's two-run homer highlighted a four-run third inning and that was all the offense for the Broncos, who moved to 14-8 with the win.  


Lela Work took the loss against Missouri, allowing five runs in three innings.  


Boise State gets another shot at the Tigers Saturday afternoon, and will also play Northern Illinois in the Tournament.

Burnett 9th in Platform Diving Qualifying, Cortney 24th

Competitors have concluded the first six preliminary dives in the platform diving at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Boise State's Amanda Burnett is 9th.

Platform is probably Burnett's specialty and the one she has the best chance in.  Because there are only seven divers taken from this competition to advance to the NCAA National Championships, Burnett probably needs to finish either first or second.  Teammate Ciera Cortney, who specializes in the lower diving heights, is 24th so far.

No Height for Felix in Pole Vault

Kurt missed all three chances at 12-5 1/2, meaning he gets zero points in the sixth event of the heptathlon.  He is essentially out of any chance to reach the Top 8, unless 3 or 4 other competitors suffer the same fate.

Today's Bronco Schedule

The Boise State men's tennis team is hosting Montana, hopefully at Appleton since the weather is gorgeous.  Kurt Felix is competing in the men's heptathlon at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at Jackson's Track in Nampa.  As you have come to expect, you can hear about it first right here.  


The women's tennis team is taking on BYU after the men are through on the courts, expected to be about noon.  At 3:30, the men are back on, hosting Cal Poly.


The women's softball team has another crack at Missouri after losing yesterday 8-0--first pitch there is at 2.  The nightcap has the Broncos meeting Northern Illinois at 4:30.


Plenty to follow, and no better place to find out than right here on Blue Through and Through.

Felix in Fifth Place in NCAA Heptathlon--Two Events to Go

1.  Gray Horn, Florida (4,356 points)
2.  Japheth Cato, Wisconsin (4,338)
3.  Cory Holman, Georgia (4,295)
4.  Bjorn Barrefors, Nebraska (4,240)
5.  Kurt Felix, Boise State (4,221)
6.  Kevin Lazas, Arkansas (4,201)
7.  Curtis Beach, Duke (4,194)
8.  Gunnar Nixon, Arkansas (4,185)
9.  Mantis Silkauskas, Kansas State (3,231)
10.  Romain Martin, Texas-Arlington (4,134)
11.  Petter Olson, Texas (4,114)
12.  Isaac Murphy, Texas (3,909)
13.  Daniel Gooris, Northern Iowa (3,860)
14.  Asa Stafin, Montana State (3,831)
15.  Dave Grzesiak, Wisconsin (3,820)

Kurt Felix Finishes 13th in Heptathlon 60-Meter Hurdles

At Blue Through and Through, we're the biggest Bronco fans there are, but we're also realistic.  That is why this is the only place you heard that, although Kurt Felix was second in the heptathlon at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, he would have to fight to finish in the Top 8 and attain All-America status.  This is because we actually have followed him throughout his career, unlike other media in the Boise Valley, and know what he is good at and what he is not.


We knew that the first four events are Kurt's events, and he was able to get to #2.  The last three are not his best events, but hopefully he can do well enough in them to hang on to the Top 8.  But while other media might think 13th in the 60-meter hurdles is not good for him, we at Blue Through and Through know that it is and he is performing about as expected.

Men's Heptathlon 60 Meter Hurdles  Place Athlete Name Affiliation Time Points Heat(Pl)  1 Japheth Cato Wisconsin 7.91 1005 4 (1)  2 Gray Horn Florida 7.93 999 3 (1)  3 Cory Holman Georgia 7.99 984 4 (2)  4 Bjorn Barrefors Nebraska 8.04 972 5 (1)  5 Petter Olson Texas 8.13 949 [8.123] 5 (2)  6 Romain Martin UT-Arlington 8.13 949 [8.128] 5 (3)  7 Curtis Beach Duke 8.15 944 2 (1)  8 Asa Staven Montana State 8.34 898 3 (2)  9 Kevin Lazas Arkansas 8.35 896 1 (1)  10 Gunnar Nixon Arkansas 8.39 886 [8.388] 3 (3)  11 Isaac Murphy Texas 8.39 886 [8.389] 2 (2)  12 Dave Grzesiak Wisconsin 8.41 881 6 (1)  13 Kurt Felix Boise State 8.43 877 2 (3)  14 Daniel Gooris Northern Iowa 8.45 872 6 (2)  15 Marcus Nilsson UCLA 8.48 865 1 (2)  DNF Mantas Silkauskas Kansas State

Boise State Business Students Advance to Americas Challenge Finals

Four Boise State students won the first round of the CFA Institute Research Challenge and have qualified for the Americas Challenge Final in New York April 9-10.  The team 

will meet 45 teams from the United States, Canada and South America.

Senior finance majors Matthew Henderson, Chaz Johnson, Shawn McFarland and Ethan Hendrickson topped teams from the University of Cincinnati, Miami of Ohio, Xavier, Northwest Nazarene and George Fox to win the competition.

“The students were able to employ analysis, organization and decision-making skills that go well beyond a typical academic experience,” said Boise State finance professor Keith Harvey, who served as the team’s faculty adviser. Stephen White, an investment manager and partner in Boise-based Berkeley Inc., served as its industry mentor.

“This was a great opportunity for the students to understand the intensive analysis that goes into developing a research report on Wall Street,” White said. “The judges’ questions are very similar to those analysts might field from their clients. This kind of experience is invaluable for students. It’s real world, fraught with hard work, tight deadlines and uncertainty.”

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a global competition that tests the analytic, valuation, report writing and presentation skills of university students.  Local CFA societies host and launch local competitions involving teams of three to five business and finance students from participating universities who work directly with a local company in researching and preparing a company analysis.  CFA Society of Idaho hosted the local competition for the fourth consecutive year.

This year’s subject company for Idaho student teams was Boise Inc., which controls the paper and packaging assets of the former publicly traded Boise Cascade.  Each team wrote a research report similar to that written by a Wall Street analyst in which the students analyzed the company, estimated the stock’s value and assigned a rating of Buy, Hold or Sell.  A week later, each team presented its findings in an oral presentation before a panel of judges.

“The CFA Investment Challenge has been a great opportunity to learn more about financial analysis and get experience doing the work that a professional analyst would do,” Henderson said.

“I learned that this type of financial analysis is really what I want to be doing as a career. It’s really a lot of fun and that’s what I want out of a career,” Hendrickson said.

Last year, nearly 2,500 students from more than 546 universities in 45 countries participated and learned best practices in equity research from leading industry experts as part of the CFA Investment Challenge.

Boise State Speech & Debate Team Wins 12th Consecutive Regional Championship

The Boise State speech & debate team, the Talkin' Broncos, are becoming as legendary as the Boise State football team.


The Talkin' Broncos return home from Spokane, Washington with their 12th consecutive title in the Great Falls Regional Championship.  


“We’re working at an exhausting pace right now with finishing up the regular season and moving into national championships,” said Manda Hicks, program director. “The conventions change from regional competition to national competition, so the team needed to use this tournament to prepare for nationals, but still uphold the expectations of northwest speech and debate – they managed beautifully. I’m excited to see how they perform at our next tournament in the Midwest.”

Tanya Medukha and Mike Fitzgerald won the tournament championship in Parliamentary debate while juniors Jon Agnew and Taylor Bruun were second.  Josh Watkins won the championship in public debate with Kat Miller and Robin Jensen both reaching the quarterfinals.

Freshman Drew Lindgren reached the final in novice public debate and was honored with a Top Five speaker award.  Sophomore Cassandra Sullivan and junior Monica Cutler also won speaking awards and were recognized among the Top 10 public debaters at the tournament.

Freshman KayCee and sophomore Dalton Hellman teamed to take second place in world's debate with freshman Svlvia Fortner and sophomore Devon Downey finishing third.  Babb, Hellman and Downey all won speaking awards and were recognized among the top five world's debaters in Spokane.

Watkins led Boise State in scoring with first-place finishes in after-dinner speaking, communication analysis and informative speaking, a second-place finish in persuasive speaking and a third in program oral interpretation.  Jensen finished first in persuasive speaking, Sullivan won in impromptu speaking and senior Howie Long took first in novice after-dinner speaking.

Sabonn Dammarell finished second in prose-interpretation, third in after-dinner speaking and reached the finals in impromptu speaking.  Sullivan was second in communication analysis and third in extemporaneous speaking while Bruin was second in the latter category.  Downey placed second in novice extemporaneous speaking and was a finalist in novice impromptu speaking, Norell Conroy finished third in communication analysis and was a finalist in both extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking and Cutler finished third in interpretation of poetry and was a finalist in prose.

Skyler Bagley finished third in novice interpretation of prose, Fitzgerald third in informative speaking, Hellman reached the finals in both extemporaneous speaking and informative speaking, sophomore Lauren Bramwell was a finalist in both prose and program oral interpretation and Babb reached the finals in poetry interpretation and persuasive speaking.  Medukha reached the finals in both program oral interpretation and interpretation of poetry, Steve Lee was a finalist in extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking , Miller was a finalist in informative speaking and Long reached the finals in novice extemporaneous speaking. 

From here, it is on to the PKD National Comprehensive Tournament next weekend, March 15-18 in Kansas City, Missouri, where Boise State defends its national championship. 

Congratulations to this great group of Broncos!

Boise State Gymnasts Fall Short of 197 Mark but Beat #49 California 195.875 to 193.050

The Broncos took care of Pac-12 foe California tonight at Taco Bell Arena.  They really miss senior Amy Glass, whom they have done without for parts of two seasons.  Ciera Perkins stepped up and won two events but Boise State still fell short of the 197 score they will need to reach Nationals.

Boise State Gets 49.2 on Beam

I have to check but I believe that is Boise State's best score of the season on the beam in their meet with Cal tonight.

Boise State Women in 23rd Place at Indoor Track Championships

Boise State is #23 on the sole strength of Mele Vaisima, who finished sixth in the weight throw today.


A check of last year's points for the Learfield Director's Cup shows that a #50 finish gets you 21 points.  That is about what I would expect for Boise State when the Track & Field Championships conclude tomorrow.


The Broncos should also get points in men's track if Kurt Felix can score points tomorrow, and should score in women's swimming and in wrestling.

Felix Finishes Ninth in Long Jump

Kurt Felix finished ninth in the long jump at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Nampa, Idaho  with a leap of 24-feet, 10-inches.


Felix just missed scoring points for the Broncos with his finish.  Kurt finished the first day of the heptathlon competition in second place, a good thing, because his final three events are not near as good as his first four.  

Scoring Malfunctions at Boise State

The live gymnastics results have hit a snag and Boise State has not fixed the problem.  We will bring you an update just as soon as the program is restored.

Broncos Score 48.975 on Bars

Again short of the 49.250 they need.  Boise State leads Cal (97.675) but Cal if not the team that the Broncos will be facing in Regionals.

Boise State Gymnasts Get 49.150

on vault.  Just a little shy of what they need to earn a 197.  The Broncos need 49.250 per event tonight.

Boise State with 49.075 on Vault to Open Gymnastics Meet with California

The Pac-12 may not have invited Boise State into its conference, so the Boise State gymnasts are extracting revenge by taking it to California in the early going.  The Bronco women have 49.075 points with two competitors left in the vault portion of the competition.  California has 48.650.  The Broncos now need 197 points per meet to reach the Top 10 and the NCAA National Championships.

Lady Bronco Softball Team Has Beaten Alcorn State 4-0

Aubray Zell turned in a gem as she tied the school record with 14 strikeouts.  Boise State is now 14-8.

Bronco Softball Team Still Leads Alcorn State 4-0

Kenzie Cole pitching the seventh trying to send her team to victory.