Bryant girls capture team title at season-opening Benton meet
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BENTON — Behind first-place finishes from the 4×400 relay team of Megan Lee, Maggie Laws, Zhania Hall and Jadyn Lewis plus a win in the open 400 by Lewis, the Bryant Lady Hornets won the McCauley Relays at Benton High School on Thursday.
The Lady Hornets accumulated 114 points to edge Arkansas High from Texarkana (96), Sylvan Hills (95.5) and 10 more schools.
“Our season is off to a good start,” acknowledged Lady Hornets coach Keith Dale. “We had lots of good performances and many areas that we will see improvement. The first meet is our line in the sand to begin improving and setting our personal and team goals.
“We had a bunch of first-meet jitters that we needed to get over,” he mentioned. “From here we will begin to improve our times, improve our confidence, and set our sights towards competing for a conference championship.”
Bryant will host the annual Hornet Relays on Tuesday.
In the 4×400 at Benton, the Bryant quartet combined on a 4:16.20 to edge Sylvan Hills, which finished in 4:18.04. The performance capped off the Lady Hornets’ meet championship.
Lewis’ win in the 400 meters was in 1:00.35. Jordan Sanders of Sylvan Hills was second in 1:02.24. Lee and Laws also scored in the event. Lee was fifth in 1:03.61 and Laws was sixth in 1:03.77.
Lewis, a senior who has signed with Arkansas State, also finished third in the 200 with a time of 26.67 and fourth in the 100 in 12.97.
Bryant athletes were second in five events. Hall (2:36.81) was second only to North Little Rock’s Destiny Gaines (2:31.37) in the 800 meter run. She also provided a leg of the second-place 4×800 relay team, joining Bree Hood, Lee and Laws on a 10:51.94 clocking, right on the heels of Sylvan Hills’ 10:46.21.
Kayla Scott’s 47.51 in the 300 hurdles was good for second behind only Asia Anderson of Pulaski Robinson (47.37).
Bailey Brazil took second in the 1600 in a time of 5:40.88 with Lake Hamilton’s Josie Carson posting a time of 5:32.43 to win the event.
In the field events, Taylor McKinney was second in the discus with a toss of 96’9” just off the winning throw of 98’10 from Texarkana’s Shikayla Walker. Kaycee White’s fling of 90’ was fifth.
White was third in the shot put with a heave of 32’1”. McKinney was fourth at 31’9”.
Cassie Ray picked up fourth-place points in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing in 17.76. Scott was fifth at 17.91.
Lauren Hart’s 13:46.83 in the 3200 was good for fifth. Lee was seventh in the triple jump at 32’8.25”.
A trio of Lady Hornets garnered points in the pole vault led by Hood, who cleared 8’6”. Laws was seventh and Kristin Garner was eighth. Both cleared 8’ with Laws getting there in fewer attempts.
