CLASS 5A
Site of the 2001
NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships (3/9-3/10)
Team Results:
1.
Bryant 64; 2. Russellville 52; 3. Fayetteville 43; 4. Rogers 42; 5. Pine Bluff
41; 6. Cabot 31; 7. Lake Hamilton 27; 8. Van Buren 26; 9. Little Rock Parkview
23; 10. Springdale 22; 11. Ft. Smith Southside 15; 12T. Little Rock Hall 10;
Mt. Home 10; El Dorado 10; 15. Camden Fairview 9; 16. Ft. Smith Northside 4;
17. West Memphis 3; 18. Bentonville 1
The
Best of the 5A Girls tied up in an exciting meet that saw five new state meet
records set. With the exception of Pine
Bluff, the other four top teams are always clawing at each other in
cross-country and the competition carried over to indoor.
Bryant
made their presence known from the very start as Coach Dan Westbrook’s 4 x 800m
relay team showed solid depth in handily setting a new state indoor record and
being the first girls team to post a time faster than 10 minutes indoors. 5A track fans knew that the Lady Hornets
were heavily favored after the showing at the 2/17/2001 meet where they easily
won in 10:01.2 (Jodi Hantz-2:31.4; Gina Messina-2:32.7; Mandy Medlin-2:29.2;
Candice James-2:27.8) besting their state record set in 2000. For the state Melanie Steele replaced Messina
who was scheduled to run the 1600 and 3200 later and the team blazed to a
surprisingly fast time with splits of 2:28.5 (Steele); 2:30.3 (Hanz); 2:30.9
(Medlin) and James (2:23.6).
In
the LJ, Jennifer Rivers of LR Parkview sailed to a slim victory over Miranda
Wallmark of Van Buren. Rivers’ mark of
16’ 3.5” was good enough by 2.25 inches.
The next three placers (Sarah Horn of Cabot; Ashley Dority of Van Buren;
and Latasha Johnson of Pine Bluff) were within 3.25” of one another.
The
HJ saw the first six jumpers within 2” as Amanda Morrison of Little Rock Hall
won at 5’ 0” based on fewer misses. After three events Bryant held a narrow
10-8 lead over Russellville who picked up four 4th place points in
the HJ on the basis of Allison Cornett’s efforts.
The
Lady Cyclones took the lead in the Shot Put as Rebecca Gosnell set a new state
meet record at 39’ 11.5” that was over a foot better than the prior
record!! Meanwhile Megan Ransom and
Leann Weaver of Rogers combined for ten points by taking 3rd and 4th
Behind Monica Williams of Camden Fairview who took 2nd. The Lady Mounties moved into second place
behind Russellville, 16-12.
Things
kept heating up as the pole vault was won by Fayetteville’s Robin Rahat who
crushed the existing record by 2 feet with a vault of 11’ 6”. Russellville added eight on Heather Allen’s
2nd place finish to retain a 24-18 lead over Fayetteville.
The
Lady Cyclones added to their lead by scoring a huge 20 points in the triple
jump by grabbing 1st (Anne Richter-33’ 5”), 3rd (Allison
Cornett-32’ 7”) and 4th (Bailey McEowen-32’ 2.5”). Richter’s leap was good enough by nearly a
foot and a half for a new stet meet record.
Rahat of Fayetteville would add two 5th place points that
would later prove pivotal to the Lady Bulldogs overall finish. Jodi Hanz added one 6th place
point for Bryant. After six events,
Russellville had taken what appeared to be a comfortable 44-20 lead over
Fayetteville.
But
the Lady Mounties had only begun.
Sophomore Liz Santos took the early lead in the 1600m and lead the
entire way for a 10m win in 5:33.26 over Lake Hamilton’s Beth Madson, a
freshman. Gina Messina of Bryant took 3rd
in 5:43.69 with Rogers’s freshman Andrea Peerson less than a half second behind
for 4th. Russellville picked
up two points with Jessica’s Winters finish and Bentonville’s Amanda Walden
placed 6th. Santos blistered
the first 400m in 71 (33-38) to open a gap on the field and cruised the next
800m with an 85 (42-43) and 90 (45-45) for 400s before closing with an 87
(46-41) to beat the hard closing Messina.
Even still, Russellville held a commanding 44-26 lead at the halfway
point over the Lady Mounties who were far from finished.
Pine
Bluff’s Amber Wooten eased through her 55m hurdle heat winning in 9.11 before
coming back in the finals for a victory in 9.04 to easily out run the field.
Bryant picked up an important 2nd place by Austyn Wingard for eight
big points to narrow Russellville’s lead to 44-29 over Bryant.
The
Fillies kept moving in the 55m dash with 14 points behind Crystal Sampson’s 2nd
place and Lakeisha Martin’s 3rd.
However, Camilia Pittman of Parkview won easily in 7.29 eclipsing the
old state meet record by a bare .01!!
The lady Cyclones still were in the lead but only 46-30-28 over Bryant
and Pine Bluff. The fight for 2nd
was a knock-down-drag-out as a new team emerged in every event.
The
Fillies were on a roll and in the heart of their strength when the 400m came
along. Lakeisha Martin took 3rd
in 1:03.18 while teammate Amber Wooten took 6th in 1:04.96 to add
seven points to Pine Bluff’s total.
Bryant’s Jodi Hanz coming back from her relay leg took 4th
with 1:03.25. The event winner was
Paige Ferrell of Springdale who raced to a nice sub-60 win with 59.92. The Fillies had come back to take 2nd
behind Russellville, 46-35 with Bryant only one point back. It was about to get really interesting.
The
800m came down to a dual between Rogers, Fayetteville and Bryant as they fought
hard for key points. Rogers’ Liz Santos took the win in 2:27.62 in her typical
run-from-the-front style with splits of 34-36-39-38.62. Bryant’s 4 x 800m crew of Mandy Medlin and
Melanie Steele claimed 4th and 5th for six points.
However, Fayetteville took 2nd (Katie Howard) and 3rd
(Sydnee Swanger) for 14 very important points. The 800m is often an important
event in a close meet and this was no disappointment. The second heat was
extremely competitive as the large field fought the first 300m for position and
the finish saw many changes the last 200m as the first 9 runners were in at 2:41
or better. Russellville held onto the
lead over Bryant but now it was only 46-40 with Rogers (36), Fayetteville (35)
and Pine Bluff (35) close behind.
The
3200m would tell the tale for Bryant and Rogers. To have any chance at a top
two placing the Lady Mounties would need to score ahead of Bryant
decisively. Rogers entered senior
Cassie Grimes, an All-State XC runner, and sophomore Cheryl White. The Lady Hornets put James and Messina on
the track. Senior Dawn Crawford of Mt.
Home ran a gutsy race taking over the lead from Lake Hamilton’s Beth Madson and
Patricia Bradbury at the mile mark and pushing the pace hard to break open the
field. The Lake Hamilton girls led the
pack through early in 79-91-97-1:40 (6:07) when Crawford threw in a 43-45-45-45
and finished up in 45-48-43-40 for a 5:54 last mile. Messina and James went with her for the first 400m of the second
mile but backed off the pace to lead the second group. Grimes and White ran together until the last
200m when Grimes took off in hot pursuit of Messina. When the dust had settled, Crawford won easily handily in
12:01.24 with Candice James a distant 2nd in 12:28.46 and Messina
barely hanging on for 3rd over Grimes. White took 5th
while Bradbury took 6th.
Bryant’s efforts put them up 54-46 over Russellville and Rogers 42
points seemed possibly good enough for 3rd depending on how
Fayetteville and Pine Bluff faired in the closing event.
What
is better than the team finish being up for grabs with only the 4 x 400m relay
remaining? Russellville could still win
the meet but they had to win the relay and hope Bryant did no better than 6th. All Rogers had to do was stay within seven
points of Fayetteville which probably meant taking 6th place to
finish 3rd, a great achievement for a young team. Bryant put away everybody’s questions from
the start and took a 1st place finish home in 4:19.41 to ice the
meet with 64 points. At the end of the
race, Rogers had failed to score but Cabot seemed to have finished ahead of
Fayetteville meaning the Lady Bulldogs had come up a point short. But then it was learned that Cabot had been
disqualified moving Fayetteville up to 2nd for eight points that
edged them one point ahead of the Lady Mounties 43-42. Russellville held off Pine Bluff for 3rd
and the Fillies came up a point short of Rogers in taking 4th in the
race. Track and Field often comes down
to little things like parts of inches and seconds. If Rogers’ 55m dash runner had been only .14 faster the Lady
Mounties would have edged out Fayetteville…..but if Pine Bluff had been only
.35 seconds faster in the 200m they would have been 3rd overall….had
Rogers been 1.22 seconds faster in the 3200m they would have been 3rd …..it can go on and on…..it was a great
finish to a great meet.
|
Event |
Bryant |
Russellville |
Fayetteville |
Rogers |
Pine Bluff |
Individual Champion |
State Meet Record |
|
1. 4 x 800m relay |
10/10 |
1/1 |
8/8 |
2/2 |
0/0 |
Bryant 9:53.56 NEW RECORD |
Bryant 10:05.60 2000 |
|
2. Long Jump |
0/10 |
1/2 |
0/8 |
0/2 |
2/2 |
Jennifer Rivers Little Rock Parkview 16’ 3.5” |
Fummi Jamoh Fayetteville 18’ 2.5” 1999 |
|
3. High Jump |
0/10 |
4/6 |
0/8 |
0/2 |
2/4 |
Amanda Morrison Little Rock Hall 5’0” |
Keely Yarborough Fayetteville 5’6” 1997 |
|
4. Shot Put |
0/10 |
10/16 |
0/8 |
10/12 |
0/4 |
Rebecca Gosnell Russellville 39’ 11.5” NEW RECORD |
Terry Peevy Russellville 38’ 8” 1996 |
|
5. Pole Vault |
4/14 |
8/24 |
10/18 |
0/12 |
0/4 |
Robin Rahat Fayetteville 11’6” NEW RECORD |
Heather Allen Russellville 9’ 6” 2000 |
|
6. Triple Jump |
1/15 |
20/44 |
2/20 |
0/12 |
0/4 |
Anne Richter Russellville 33’5” NEW RECORD |
Sarah Horn Cabot 32’ .5” 1998 |
|
7. 1600m |
6/21 |
2/46 |
0/20 |
14/26 |
0/4 |
Liz Santos Rogers 5:33.26 |
Kelly Bryson Bentonville 5:11.07 1998 |
|
8. 55m hurdle |
8/29 |
0/46 |
0/20 |
0/26 |
10/14 |
Amber Wooten Pine Bluff 9.11 |
Dionne Brown Little Rock Hall 8.70 1995 |
|
9. 55m |
1/30 |
0/46 |
0/20 |
0/26 |
14/28 |
Camilia Pittman Little Rock Parkview 7.29 NEW RECORD |
Linda Stoles Little Rock Fair 7.30 1996 |
|
10. 400m |
4/34 |
0/46 |
0/20 |
0/26 |
7/35 |
Paige Ferrell Springdale 59.92 |
Shanna Cobbs Little Rock Hall 58.72 1995 |
|
11. 800m |
6/40 |
0/46 |
15/35 |
10/36 |
0/35 |
Liz Santos Rogers 2:27.81 |
April Johnson Fayetteville 2:22.63 1999 |
|
12. 200m |
0/40 |
0/46 |
0/35 |
0/36 |
2/37 |
Ashley Cooper El Dorado 27.31 |
Shanna Cobbs Little Rock Hall 26.20 1995 |
|
13. 3200m |
14/54 |
0/46 |
0/35 |
6/42 |
0/37 |
Dawn Crawford Mt. Home 12:01.34 |
Cory Chastain Cabot 11:33.51 1998 |
|
14. 4x400m relay |
10/64 |
6/52 |
8/43 |
0/42 |
4/41 |
Bryant 4:19.41 |
Russellville 4:14.22 1997 |
©
ArkansasTrackStats.com 2001