CLASS 5A
Site of the 2001
NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships (3/9-3/10)
BOYS
Team
Results:
1.
Pine Bluff 81; 2. Russellville 46; 3. Ft. Smith Southside 42; 4. Little Rock
Hall 34; 5T. Cabot 32;
Conway
32; 8. Van Buren 28; 9T. Little Rock McClellan 26; Rogers 26; 11. West Memphis
15; 12. Fayetteville
14;
13. Lake Hamilton 14; 14. Camden Fairview 12; 15. Little Rock Parkview 10; 16.
Mt. Home 8; 17. Sheridan
6;
18. El Dorado 4; 19. Bryant 3; 20. Bentonville 1
The
meet began with the crowd wondering how wide the margin of victory would be for
the Pine Bluff Zebras this time around. Even though the Zebras had not competed
in the earlier meets at Fayetteville, their track and field tradition speaks
for itself. However, no matter the tradition, there were other teams that had a
legitimate chance to challenge and possibly make a run. Russellville brought a strong distance crew
who held the fastest 4 x 800m time in 2001 and good pole vaulters. The Rebels of Ft. Smith Southside boasted
the state’s top two shot putters to go along with what is normally a balanced
team. The sleeper was the Rogers
Mounties who not only have solid distance runners but some jumpers that were
capable of scoring good points. If the
Mounties hit on all cylinders, then 60+ was not out of the question.
The
Cyclones confidently took the track for the 4 x 800m relay knowing that Pine
Bluff would be the challengers. The big
question was in what condition was Pine Bluff’s corps of 800m runners. Russellville took the lead and led at 2:02
(29-31-31-31) for the first exchange with Pine Bluff, Cabot and Rogers close
behind. At the half way mark
Russellville still held a slight lead at 4:01 for a second leg of 1:59
(29-30-30-30) while the Zebras were hanging tight. The third leg saw Russellville pass in 6:07 for a 2:06 mark
(31-31-33-31) as Pine Bluff closed the gap and began to take control. Rogers and Cabot were both well back
fighting for 3rd. Pine
Bluff’s anchor took off like a storm posting a 56 first 400m and held on for a
2:01.68 leg (65.68) to edge out Russellville and take the record from the
Cyclones. The Zebras now hold both the
indoor and outdoor records in the 4x8.
Cabot and Rogers each lowered their season’s best by over 7 seconds as
Mounties’s anchor senior Scott Swearingen ran 2:01 to bring Rogers in close at
4th but Cabot held off the hard-finishing Swearingen by .09 in a
photo-finish.
Pine
Bluff gathered a 4th in the LJ behind the 21’ 9” leap of Miles
Tackett. Meanwhile, Romone Johnson of 5A West Van Buren took honors over John
Jackson of Little Rock Hall by 3.5 “.
Teammate Andrew Nguyen took 3rd for the Van Buren to give the
Pointers a brief lead, 16-14.
Neither
Pine Bluff nor Russellville would score in the HJ as Southside got into the act
with a 3rd place. Sidney
Tate took a surprising win at 6’ 2” as Roger’s Jonathan Whiteman, who had
cleared 6’ 4” earlier in the season could only manage 5th.
Southside
continued their scoring with a sweep of the first two places in the shot put as
Matt Caldwell and Nathan Osburn threw 54’ 7” and 51’ 6.5”, respectively. Osburn barely edged out Little Rock
McClellan’s James Reynolds who tossed the iron just 3.5” less. Russellville picked up a much-needed 5th
by Dustin Trammel. The Rebels would take the lead over Russellville 24-10.
The
Cyclones sailed for 12 big points with a 2nd (Michael Jones-13’ 6”)
and 4th (Brett Kirkconnell-13’0”) in the pole vault to cut
Southside’s lead to 24-22. Justin Moore
of Fayetteville won the event with a solid vault of 14’ 0”.
Van
Buren took the lead back with Andrew Nguyen’s win in the TJ as he jumped 43’
4.75” to best Little Rock Hall’s Preston Hinton by only 3.25”. Although Rogers had the second best jump
prior to the meet, the Mounties could only get 5th for two points as
their chances for a surprise were gradually disappearing.
Knowing
that big points were needed fast, the Mounties set out to make amends in the
1660m. Ryan Garvin of Lake Hamilton
took the early lead through 200m in 33 but Chase Feltner of Russellville
charged to the lead at the 400m In 69 (36).
Meanwhile, the Rogers crew of Scott Swearingen and junior Jake Conley
held back at a slow 70-71. Conley now
stepped up to speed up the pace and passed the 600m mark with Feltner at 1:45
(35 for 220m). Moments after the fourth lap started, Eric Brock of the Cyclones
jumped out to challenge Conley and they both crossed the 800m at 2:19 (34) as
Swearingen still hung back at 2:20. Now
Swearingen sensed it was time to move as he took the lead at the 1000m mark in
2:55 (35) with Conley, Feltner and Brock all close behind. Swearingen kept up the pressure at th3 1200m
with 3:27 (32) and stretched the lead out at 1400m with 3:59 (32). By now the race was for 2nd as
Swearingen sped home in 32.04 for 4:31.04.
Brock claimed 2nd in 4:32.88 while Conley snuck by Feltner to
finish just .23 seconds ahead in 4:34.30 for 3rd. The Mounties picked up what was expected
with 16 points as Russellville added 12.
After seven events, the Cyclones had taken the lead and the crowd was
beginning to ask when Pine Bluff would be heard from again as five events had
passed without the Zebras scoring.
Pine
Bluff would be blanked again in the 55m hurdles as Jermaine Kornegay of Little
Rock Hall won in 8.04 over Eric Hickman of Camden Fairview who had blistered
the track with a 7.87 to win Heat 3 in the prelims. Hickman could only manage an 8.16 in the finals. Russellville
picked up another 5th place by Adam Vines to widen their lead
slightly.
The
drought would finally end for Pine Bluff in the 55m dash as Cedric Taggart took
2nd in 6.57 only .05 back of winner Leroy Hamilton of Little Rock
McClellan. Hamilton improved his time
by .13 from his Heat 6 winning time of 6.65 in the prelims.
If the Zebras were to make a charge, the 400m
would be a good place to start. Melvin
Thomas of Pine Bluff won handily in 52.16 while teammate Wallace Rayford took 6th
at 52.62 in a very close race where 2nd thru 6th were
separated by only .46!!! Southside
picked up 2nd place to move back into the hunt. Russellville still
led but only narrowly by 38-33-32 over Pine Bluff, the Southside.
If there were any questions about the readiness
of the Zebras’ 800m crew after the 4x8 relay, the open 800m put those to rest
for good. Robert McQuay and Mario
Urguhart took 1st and 2nd in a close race where the top
five were within 1.35 seconds. McQuay and Urguhart posted splits of 27.5-56.5
(29.0) –1:27 (30.5) for the first 600m before McQuay squeezed out an
ever-so-slight lead in lap four an held off the pack for a winning time of
1:58.34. Urguhart’s lean at the tape
gave him a .03 photo-finish edge over Cabot’s James Melnick. Russellville’s Travis Feltner hung on for a
1:59.69 for 5th place and Southside claimed 6th. Now Pine Bluff had a solid margin 51-40 over
Russellville that would turn out to be all they needed.
But the Zebras would take no chances. In their best scoring event of the meet,
Pine Bluff would take 1st (Cedric Taggart-23.00), 2nd
(Wallace Rayford-23.08) and 5th (Stephen O’Bryant-23.54) for 20
points to seal the victory for sure.
Southside could only get one 6th place point and Russellville
did not score. Now the fight was on for 2nd in the team competition
as Pine Bluff led 71-40-34.
The 3200m run was supposed to be Rogers’ chance
to close strong with Swearingen and Conley being two of the state’s top
distance runners. However, Conley had opted for the 800m and did not
enter. Pine Bluff and Southside had no
serious challengers so Russellville had a chance to take big points and put Southside
away to secure runner-up. The Cyclones’
Eric Brock did get under 10 minutes with a 9:59.17 but could only manage 3rd
for six points. Swearingen, who had
doubled and tripled effectively in the past, took the early lead with Chris
Behrens of Cabot as the two paced the field through 200m laps of 38-36-36-36-36
for a 3:01 at 1000m. Swearingen then
began to noticeably fall back as Logan Thomas of Mt.Home took the lead in 3:35
(34) at 1200m. Having taken on a stitch, Swearingen was in obvious discomfort
but hung in as close as he could.
Thomas and Behrens took command passing the 1660m in 4:48
(37-36=73). The duo ran together the
remainder if the way as they steadily pulled away from the field with 200m
splits of 37-39-38-41-35-37-35 to cross the 3000m mark at 9:10. Now the race was just a 200m sprint as the
two cross-country competitors ran full out and stride-for-stride with Thomas
taking a slight lead with 80m to go. However, Behrens made a final surge at the
tape to nip Thomas by .34 in 9:43.64 for a final 200m of 33.64 (68.64 last
400m). Swearingen ran courageously but
faded to 6th while Burt Hicks of Lake Hamilton took 4th
and David Stafford of Bryant claimed 5th. Brock’s six points gave Russellville a total of 46 with the 4x400
relay to go and an insurmountable lead over Southside.
Even though the team championship was settled,
Pine Bluff does not like to lose relays.
Tonight was no exception as the Zebras cruised to a comfortable win over
Southside in 3:29.14 to 3:32.79 for 10 1st place points to boost
their score to 81 and a 35 point margin over the Cyclones. Russellville ended up only four points ahead
of Southside testifying to the importance of Brock’s 3200m points.
|
Event |
Pine Bluff |
Russellville |
Ft. Smith Southside |
Individual Champion |
State Meet Record |
|
1. 4 x 800m relay |
10/10 |
8/8 |
0/0 |
Pine Bluff 8:09.68 NEW RECORD |
Russellville 8:15.05 2000 |
|
2. Long Jump |
4/14 |
0/8 |
0/0 |
Romone Johnson Van Buren 22’ 10.5” |
Mark Bradley Pine Bluff 23’ 8.75” 2000 |
|
3. High Jump |
0/14 |
0/8 |
6/6 |
Sidney Tate West Memphis 6’ 2” |
Mark Bradley Pine Bluff 7’ 2” 2000 |
|
4. Shot Put |
0/14 |
2/10 |
18/24 |
Matt Caldwell Ft. Smith
Southside 54’ 7.75” |
John Williams Cabot 60’ 2.5” 1999 |
|
5. Pole Vault |
0/14 |
12/22 |
0/24 |
Justin Moore Fayetteville 14’ 0” |
Blake Jorgenson Fayetteville 15’ 6” 2000 |
|
6. Triple Jump |
0/14 |
0/22 |
0/24 |
Andrew Nguyen Van Buren 43’ 4” |
Mark Bradley Pine Bluff 46’ 3.5” 2000 |
|
7. 1600m |
0/14 |
12/34 |
0/24 |
Scott Swearingen Rogers 4:31.04 |
David Carroll Rogers 4:22.45 1997 |
|
8. 55m hurdle |
0/14 |
4/38 |
0/24 |
Jermaine Kornegay LR Hall 8.04 |
Cedric Cobbs LR Fair 7.32 1999 |
|
9. 55m |
8/22 |
0/38 |
0/24 |
Leroy Hamilton LR McClellan 6.52 |
Chris Johnson El Dorado 6.37 2000 |
|
10. 400m |
11/33 |
0/38 |
8/32 |
Melvin Thomas Pine Bluff 51.20 |
Ben Shankle Fayetteville 49.80 1996 |
|
11. 800m |
18/51 |
2/40 |
1/33 |
Robert McQuay Pine Bluff 1:58.34 NEW RECORD |
Marketh Warrior Pine Bluff 1:59.12 1997 |
|
12. 200m |
20/71 |
0/40 |
1/34 |
Cedric Taggart Pine Bluff 23.00 |
Chris Johnson El Dorado 22.13 2000 |
|
13. 3200m |
0/71 |
6/46 |
0/34 |
Chris Behrens Cabot 9:43.64 |
David Carroll Rogers 9:34.70 1996 |
|
14. 4x400m relay |
10/81 |
0/46 |
8/42 |
Pine Bluff 3:29.14 |
Pine Bluff 3:28.13 1997 |
© ArkansasTrackStats.com 2001