PEARCY — At the Central Arkansas Junior High Conference Track Championship Friday at Lake Hamilton High School, the Bryant Junior Lady Hornets won six events, scored 119 points, and set three new school records, but it wasn’t enough to take the team championship away from Lake Hamilton.
Competing with only 14 athletes in a competition that includes 16 events and three entries allowed per event per school, the Bryant girls simply did not have enough depth to secure the title, said Bryant track coach Danny Westbrook.
Lake Hamilton won the meet with 134 points. Bryant had to settle for runner-up, just 15 points behind with 119. North Little Rock finished third with 106 points followed by Cabot (94), Conway (81), Sheridan (55), and Benton (28).[more]
Bryant’s Alexis Royal was awarded the high-point plaque at the end of the meet for her 42-point individual performance on the night. Royal began with a winning leap in the triple jump of 33’9”, followed by a school-record setting victory in the 100‑meter dash in 12.92. Next she added a victory in the 200-meter dash with another school-record time of 27.52. Along with the three first-place performances, she was second in the long jump (15’3”), was the anchor leg of the 4×100-meter relay that broke yet another school record with a second-place finish of 53.6, and was on the 4×400-meter relay team that placed seventh.
“In a championship caliber meet like this one, I have never had an athlete perform at the level Alexis did,” Westbrook declared. “She won three event championships, set three school records, and won the conference high point award. If you ask me, that is a pretty good night’s work. She has so much talent for this sport. She has the kind of pure speed that track coaches dream about.”
Distance runner Hannah Raney gave Bryant two event victories on the night. In the 1600-meter run, Raney led wire-to-wire to earn her first win with a time of 5:36.2. In the 800-meter run, she had the crowd on their feet with a dramatic come-from-behind victory, crossing the line with a time of 2:34.6.
“Hannah did a great job beating some very good Lake Hamilton distance runners tonight,” Westbrook stated. “I was really proud of her aggressive racing. She showed a lot of heart in the 800 coming from about 30 meters back in the final stretch.”
Keeley Wilson scored 22 points for the Junior Lady Hornets. She won the high jump (4’7”), finished third in the 100-meter hurdles (18.06), finished fifth in the 300-meter hurdles (55.3), and was a member of the school record setting second place 4 x 100-meter relay team.
Joining Wilson and Royal on that relay was Sarah Evans and Jade Hampton. Evans added a third-place finish in the 200 (27.0) and a sixth in the 100 (13.5). She also joined Royal, Raney and Hampton on the 4×400 meter relay team.
Hampton picked up fourth-place points in the 100 hurdles, finishing in 18.07. She was seventh in the 300 hurdles (55.6) and joined Ashton Eley, Raney and Tara Shewmaker in the 4×800 meter relay which finished sixth in 11:47.
Kaylee Dove finished third with Lauren Hill seventh in the discus. Dove’s throw went 78’4” while Hill’s went 71’3”. Dove was also seventh in the shot (30’6”) while Savanna Reep contributed a seventh-place finish in the pole vault, clearing 5’6”.
“Even though we came up a little short of winning the conference title, this was an amazing team performance for these 14 young ladies,” Westbrook emphasized. “If you check the results, you will see that every team with the exception of Bryant was able to use their seventh and eighth grade athletes to bolster their team’s roster. Bryant has a school rule for football, basketball, and track that seventh or eighth graders cannot compete with the ninth grade. In this type of competition where depth makes a big difference, that rule really puts our ninth grade track teams at a huge disadvantage. From what I saw at the middle school track meets this season, if we had been able to utilize those kids like the other schools, there is no doubt in my mind we would have dominated this meet.”
Lauren
This was by far the best track meet of our season. Hannah’s accomplishment was outstanding and really put the team on their tip toes about the outcome of the winning. My girls pushed thier hardest and we came out second in confrence. I want to thank our coaches and my team members for making track 2010 such an amazing experience.
Alexis Royal
This was the best track meet by far of the season. I was really proud of myself and the other lady hornets for the accomplishments on that night and everyone had an amazing performance i wasn’t expecting to score as many points as i did but Im glad i did it.! i did it strictly for the team and i would have never been able to do it with out our amazing coaches support.! coach Westbrook, stiles, Renolds and dale has all motivated me throughout this season and pushed us all and i thank them for that….. I love all of our coaches and my team and hopes for a much bigger performance next year.!