HOT SPRINGS — Senior Landon Abernathy made his 2017 debut for the Bryant Hornets track team in splendid fashion on Thursday at the Lakeside Ram Relays. Abernathy beat out Kevon Holder of Conway to win the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 39.17 (to Holder’s 39.46).
The Hornets’ performance was also highlighted by Chris Barrientos’ win in the 3200-meter run with a time of 9:45.08, a personal record that, according to head coach Steve Oury, is currently the second best in the state.
“Chris won by over 30 seconds,” Oury mentioned. Omar Ramos of Lake Hamilton was second in 10:19.30.
As a team, the Hornets finished a close third in the 13-team field with 113 points. De Queen won the meet with 116.5 followed by Lake Hamilton with 115. Conway was fourth with 99 points.
“We had lots of very good performances, but it’s frustrating to come that close to winning the meet and come up short,” Oury said. “The 4 x 100 relay team was leading the race and we had a bad exchange that resulted in a fall, which took us out of the race. Just one of those fluke things that we will learn from.
Abernathy not only won the 300 hurdles, he finished fifth in the 110 high hurdles in 16.03. He also supplied a leg to the 4×400 relay, joining Glenn Norris, Josh Robinson and Diante Woodson on a 3:29.34 clocking, just shy of the winning time of Lake Hamilton of 3:27.56.
In the 4×800, Barrientos, John Carder, Christian McIntosh and Enrique Ramos combined on a time of 8:24.52, which was second only to Conway’s 8:23.53.
“Landon Abernathy ran a spectacular race in the 300 hurdles,” said Oury. “Coach Keith Dale is doing a great job with our hurdlers. It was nice to see him dip under 40 seconds right out of the gate. Chris Barrientos was rock solid in the 3200. He did a good job of staying focused.”
He added, “Madre Dixon had a big personal record in the shot put (48-7) to place third and Michael Chatmon also came up big in that event (fifth in 43-7). Coach John Orr does a great job with all the throwers.”
Dixon was also third in the discus with a throw of 133’5.5”.
Malik Dockery was second in the 400 with a time of 52.46. Knowledge Hood of Lake Hamilton had the winning time of 50.77. Norris was fourth at 54.09.
Andrew White took third in the 200, finishing in 23.53. Woodson was fifth in 23.97. In the 100, Randy Thomas finished fourth in 11.41 with McKenzie Martindale fifth in 11.73.
Carder turned in a 4:35.62 to finish fourth in the 1600. McIntosh was seventh with a time of 4:48.07.
In the 800, Ramos with a seventh-place finish in 2:07.47. Joining Barrientos in the 3200, Eathan Devine was eighth in 11:00.03. Raney Singleton finished seventh in the 300 hurdles in 44.63.
In the field, Thomas was fourth in the long jump at 19’2”. Robinson took fifth in the high jump, clearing 5’8” with Brandon Murry eighth at 5’8”. Murray’s triple jump of 39’11.5” was good for sixth.
Bryant will send athletes who did not compete at Lakeside to the Cabot Panther Relays on Tuesday, then will be in action in Russellville on Friday, April 7.
