CLASS 4A
Site of the 2001
NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships (3/9-3/10)
BOYS
Team
Results:
1. Hot Springs 157; 2. Crossett 52; 3. Little
Rock Fair 46; 4. Siloam Springs 33; 5. Robinson 29; 6.
Morrilton 25; 7. Greenwood 23; 8. Hot Springs
Lakeside 22; 9. Alma 20; 10. West Helena Central 19; 11. Green
County Tech 8
Five impressive new records were set, as the Hot Springs Trojans put on a speed clinic for the track faithful at the Class 4A Boys State Indoor Meet. The Trojan’s Three H-Men ….Antwon Hicks, James Hamilton and Brandon Hodges…scored 78 points in individual events to easily win the meet themselves while the remaining Trojans pulled in 79!! Hicks won three events while teammates James Hamilton and Brandon Hodges each won two. Hamilton was the start of the show with two new state records but Hicks and Hodges shined brightly also.
However,
Little Rock Fair made it’s 4A debut after stepping down from 5A by whipping Hot
Springs by nearly 5 seconds in the 4x800m relay. West Helena Central finished a very close 3rd only .66
back. This would be only one of two
times that Hot Springs would trail during the meet.
In
the LJ area, the Antwon Hicks Show was just getting underway as the State Meet
Record fell by 1.25 feet! Jonathon
Prather of Hot Springs (21’ 6.25”) and Nate Tuback of Siloam Springs (21’
4.75”) both exceeded the old record as they finished 2nd and 3rd,
respectively. With 18 points, the
Trojans “jumped” into the lead.
Hicks
kept the Show going with a win in the HJ although it was well below his record
mark set in 1999. Fair’s John Lofton
took 2nd place honors while William Irving of Hot Springs added to
Hick’s points. The lead stretched out
to 38-18.
Crossett
with a long history in the Shot Put kept up the tradition with three
scorers….Tim Ranthum in 2nd, Rodney Buie in 3rd and Tre
Scott in 5th. Bobby Payne of
Morrilton took the win with a heave of 51’ 11.50 for an 8” victory. The Eagles closed the gap to 39-24.
The
Eagles had the momentum in another event that they have long had the
success…the Pole Vault. Brian Tyler
took 1st at 15’ 6” while teammates Matt Livingston grabbed 3rd
and Adam Rhodes cleared 12’ 6” for 5th to give Crossett 18 points
and a short-lived lead at 42-39.
What
turned out to be the decisive event saw Cedric Easton of Hot Springs break
Hick’s state triple jump record with a winning leap of 43’ 6.5”. Easton’s record was almost 2.5 feet better
than the old mark. Hicks took 2nd
with a jump of 1’ 3” better than his 1999 mark. The Trojans took a 57-42 lead and from this point on the team
race was for 2nd.
Now
it was time for Hot Springs to trot out some runners. Record holder Brandon Hodges ran a tactical race and won by 8
seconds without getting to close to his 2000 time. Dennis Bowling of Siloam Springs took 2nd while the
Trojan’s Chris Pentrancosta placed 5th for two more points. At the halfway mark, the Trojans held a
solid 69-42 lead over Crossett.
Back
came Hicks for a quick 7.66 win in the 55m hurdles although well off his
existing mark of 7.44. However, Hicks
was able to lower his time from his Heat 1 prelims win when he won by .64 in
7.72. The lead bulged to 72-42.
In
the 55m dash, Maurice Fayne finally got Fair some good points win a 6.71 as he
narrowly beat out Cedric Easton and Jonathon Prather, both of Hot Springs, who
each were timed in 6.77. Fair picked up
4th place as well from Joe Wesley.
Fayne’s time was only .01 slower than his Heat 3 prelims winning time
while Easton fell off from his Heat 3 time of 6.74. Prather stepped up from his Heat 1 time of 6.83. Fair was at last showing signs of giving
Crossett a run for their money by closing the Eagles gap to 42-33 in the race
for 2nd. Hot Springs had now
more than doubled up Crossett, 93-42.
If
the crowd was not impressed so far with what they had seen, James Hamilton was
about to give everybody reason to pay attention. Hamilton started fast in the 400m, never trailed and seemed to
speed up down the stretch in knocking out an impressive win in 48.45, a new
record by 1.67 seconds!! Teammate
Cedric Easton ran a very good 50.04 to also eclipse the old mark in taking 2nd. Ricky Young grabbed 3rd for the
Trojans to give them 20 more points.
Chris Hellard of Alma took 3rd with a respectable early season
time of 51.93. The lead mushroomed to
113-42 as neither Crossett nor Fair scored.
With
the crowd still abuzz, Brandon Hodges took off in the 800m as if he thought he
was in the 400m. The tall,
long-striding runner ran hard from the start and crossed the 200m in 26.50 for
a commanding lead. Hodges passed the
400m at 55.31 (28.89) and the 600m mark in 1:23.77 (28.46). Running all alone well in front of the pack,
Hodges finished with a 29.46 for a record-shattering 1:53.28!!!! This new
record buried Hodges’ old record by a whopping 12.61 seconds!!!! Shaun Walker of Greenwood took 2nd
in a nice time of 1:58.77. Fair picked up 3rd place points by Gabe
Moore and Crossett took both 5th and 6th for three
points. Fair narrowed Crossett’s lead
for 2nd by three to 45-39.
The
Trojans were far from done. In a
seemingly attempt to upstage Hodges, James Hamilton returned in the 200m to set
yet another record at 22.26 over teammate Jonathon Prather who trailed by .95
seconds. Hamilton smashed the old mark
by .80 seconds. Fair’s Fayne held on
for 6th to help close the gap behind Crossett to only 45-40.
In
the 3200m run Dennis Bowling of Siloam Springs laid back the first 400m then
took over and never trailed for more than a few strides. Bowling’s splits were 74-77-82-81-83-87-88-88
as he crossed the mile at 5:14. Chris
Pentrancosta added a 3rd for Hot Springs, Gabe Moore finished 5th
for Fair and John Jones of Crossett claimed 6th. With one event remaining, Fair had closed to
only a four-point deficit behind the Eagles, 46-42.
The
competition for team runner-up came down to this. Fair had to score five more points than Crossett. To do this, Fair had to take no lower than 3rd
and hope Crossett obliged with a low finish.
As Hot Springs had the third best time in the US, Fair could
realistically shoot for 2nd or 3rd. Meanwhile, Crossett could assure themselves
of runner-up if they simply took care of business and finished 3rd
or higher. Running in Heat 1, Fair took
out game enough with a 52.14 opening 400m.
However, the next three legs were 55.98, 56.02 and 55.57 for a heat
winning time of 3:39.71. Heat 2 was
never in doubt as to the winner. Hot
Springs opened with a 51.18, followed with a 49.86, motored the third 400m in
48.74 by Hamilton and saw Hodges anchor in 49.86 (23.23-26.53) for yet another
record-smashing time of 3:19.64. This time the old mark, also held by Hot
Springs, fell by 14.03 seconds!! Crossett
meanwhile took advantage of the draft left by the Trojan’s wake and slipped
into 3rd with 3:38.09, just 1.62 seconds faster than Fair. Alma grabbed 2nd with a nice
3:35.95.
Hot
Springs loaded up 157 total points that took the next four teams combined to
exceed. Crossett’s relay finish assured
the Eagles of the runner-up slot with a 52-46 margin over Fair.
|
Event |
Hot Springs |
Crossett |
Little Rock Fair |
Individual Champion |
State Meet Record |
|
1. 4 x 800m relay |
8/8 |
4/4 |
10/10 |
Little Rock Fair 8:48.30 |
Siloam Springs 8:35.85 2000 |
|
2. Long Jump |
18/26 |
4/8 |
2/12 |
Antwon Hicks Hot Springs 22’ 1.75” NEW RECORD |
Eric Parks Morrilton 21’ 1.5” 1999 |
|
3. High Jump |
12/38 |
0/8 |
6/18 |
Antwon Hicks Hot Springs 6’ 5” |
Antwon Hicks Hot Springs 6’ 10” 1999 |
|
4. Shot Put |
1/39 |
16/24 |
0/18 |
Bobby Payne Morrilton 51’ 11.50” |
Adam Bishop Crossett 60’ 10” 1999 |
|
5. Pole Vault |
0/39 |
18/42 |
0/18 |
Brian Tyler Crossett 15’ 6” |
Brad Tyler Crossett 16’ 0” 1998 |
|
6. Triple Jump |
18/57 |
0/42 |
1/19 |
Cedric Easton Hot Springs 43’ 6.5” NEW RECORD |
Antwon Hicks Hot Springs 41’ 2.75” 1999 |
|
7. 1600m |
12/69 |
0/42 |
0/19 |
Brandon Hodges Hot Springs 4:43.39 |
Brandon Hodges Hot Springs 4:24.17 2000 |
|
8. 55m hurdle |
10/79 |
0/42 |
0/19 |
Antwon Hicks Hot Springs 7.66 |
Antwon Hicks Hot Springs 7.44 2000 |
|
9. 55m |
14/93 |
0/42 |
14/33 |
Maurice Fayne Little Rock Fair 6.71 |
Brandon Goree Crossett 6.61 1999 |
|
10. 400m |
20/113 |
0/42 |
0/33 |
James Hamilton Hot Springs 48.45 NEW RECORD |
Chris Daniel Hot Springs 50.12 1999 |
|
11. 800m |
10/123 |
3/45 |
6/39 |
Brandon Hodges Hot Springs 1:53.28 |
Brandon Hodges Hot Springs 2:05.89 1999 |
|
12. 200m |
18/141 |
0/45 |
1/40 |
James Hamilton Hot Springs 22.26 NEW RECORD |
King Batesville 23.06 2000 |
|
13. 3200m |
6/147 |
1/46 |
2/42 |
Dennis Bowling Siloam Springs 10:50.13 |
Jon Allen Newport 10:12.10 2000 |
|
14. 4x400m relay |
10/157 |
6/52 |
4/46 |
Hot Springs 3:19.64 NEW RECORD |
Hot Springs 3:33.67 1999 |
© ArkansasTrackStats.com 2001