Students win at district hoop shoot

Students representing Mountain Home at Saturday's district hoop shoot event were Regan McDaniel, Aaliyah Morris, Sean Jackson, Cyrus Wetherell, Keller Hunter Wetherell and Abigail Malone (not pictured).

Following their appearance at a local basketball competition earlier this month, two Mountain Home students took top honors at this year's district-level event on Saturday.

Sean Jackson from Hacker Middle School and Regan McDaniel with Mountain Home Junior High School were among six students from the local area that put their basketball sharpshooting skills to the test as they competed at the event in Boise.

Others representing schools in Mountain Home were Aaliyah Morris, Cyrus Wetherell, Keller Hunter Wetherell and Abigail Malone. They faced off against students representing Boise, Nampa, Caldwell and Weiser.

Hosted locally by Mountain Home Elks Lodge 2276, the annual competition required participants to sink free-throws baskets with the hoop distance shortened for younger participants. The winners in each age category are based on the total number of baskets made.

Local hoop shoot chairman Larry Fincher said each of these competitors demonstrated sportsman ship and made Mountain Home proud.

"The youth and their families are always the core of our youth programs, and it is an honor to be the chairman of this hoop shoot program," Fincher said.

Jackson and McDaniel will move on to face students from across Idaho during the state competition, scheduled for Feb. 4 in Grangeville. Winners at that level will move on to the regional level in hopes of going to this year's national hoop shoot championship.

"Make sure they hear Mountain Home loud and clear as we say congratulations and cheer them on to this next level," Fincher said. "No matter where any of these participants place, they are all winners."