CONWAY — The defense of the State championship Bryant Hornets football team provided lots of points to the BHS track and field team this season, capped off on Friday by a 6A-Central Conference title.
Kaleb Knox, Kyle Knox and LaQuav Brumfield, who were three-fourths of the football team’s secondary, plus Rodricho Martin, a defensive end, provided points 16 times on Friday at the league championship meet at Conway High School. Kaleb Knox was high-point performer by finishing second in the 110-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and the 100-meter dash plus third in the long jump, fifth in the 200-meter dash and sixth in the triple jump.
Bryant accumulated 186.5 points. Cabot was second with 152 with Conway third with 129.5 points in the eight-team league field.
Bryant athletes won two individual conference crowns. Martin won the discus with a throw of 129’8” and Brumfield won the triple jump, covering 42’1.5”.
“I couldn’t be any prouder of these young men,” said Hornets head coach Steve Oury. “They really committed to the team concept and were determined to bring the championship back to Bryant.
“We got off to a great start in the field events and that really set the tone for the day,” he added. “We had clutch performances from our discus crew, with Rodricho Martin setting a new personal best by 12 feet.”
Freshman Devyn Steingisser was second in the event with a throw of 125’2” and senior Tyler Curry was fourth at 119’6”.
Brumfield’s winning effort in the triple jump beat out Conway’s Jamari Jackson (41’10.75”. Kyle Knox was third at 41’9.75 and Kaleb Knox was sixth at 40’3.5”.
Kaleb and Kyle Knox both had some trouble hitting the board in the long jump and triple jump,” Oury mentioned, “but came through with big jumps when we had to have them. LaQuav hit a good jump on his first attempt in the triple jump and that was good enough to win it.”
In the long jump, Kyle Knox was second at 21’2” behind only Josh Warren of Cabot (21’2” in fewer attempts). Kaleb Knox was third (20’2”) and Gabe Allen seventh (19’4”).
“Our pole vaulters did a great job of clearing bars and picking up some big points,” Oury added.
Three Hornets scored in the pole vault led by Andrew Karp in third at 10’6”. Jacob Jones was fourth at the same height and Caden Hope tied for fifth at 9’6”.
Martin added a third in the shot put with a heave of 41’10.5” while Nasir Vinson and Brumfield scored in the high jump. Both cleared 5’10”, tying for fifth.
“We had about a 10-point lead over Cabot after the field events and 4 x 800 were complete, which was way over what I had projected,” Oury noted. “I was just hoping we would be within 15 or 20 points of the lead.
“We had lots of very good performances in the running events,” he continued. “I can’t say enough about the Knox twins. Kaleb ran his first 110-meter hurdle race in a couple of years and came in a close second.”
His time was 15.31, just off the pace of Conway’s Ricky Robertson (15.10). Freshman Drake Fowler was sixth in 17.38.
In the 100, Kaleb Knox was second (11.06) to Little Rock Central’s Woyn Chatman (10.84) with Kyle Knox sixth in 11.33)
“I had to pull (Kaleb) off of the 4 x 100 relay so that we could maximize his abilities in the hurdle and sprint races,” Oury mentioned.
“Kyle had some great jumps in the long jump and almost pulled out the win in that event,” he added. “He also did a great job in the 100, 200, and 4 x 100 relay. It was great seeing these senior team leaders do whatever it takes to help the team.”
In the 4 x 100, Allen, Kyle Knox, River Gregory and Brumfield turned in a 43.40, finishing less than a second behind Fort Smith Northside (42.52).
In the 300 hurdles, Kaleb Knox ran a 40.37 to finish second to Robertson again (40.14) with Fowler fifth in 43.92.
Kyle Knox was fourth (22.70) and Kaleb Knox fifth (22.75) in the 200.
Ammon Henderson came through with a second-place finish in the 800. His time of 2:02.76 was just off the pace set by Conway’s Ethan Kailey (2:01.97). M.J. Ferguson ran a 2:06.75 to finish sixth and Sam Herring’s 2:07.02 was good for eighth.
In the 4 x 400, Bryant was second to North Little Rock, turning in a 3:29.97 on a near photo finish. North Little Rock’s time was 3:29.90.
In the 4 x 200, Shamarion Gilmore, Daizure Hale, Brian Hare and Remulus Herrien turned in a 1:34.18, finishing on the heels of Conway (1:32.02).
Hagan Austin, Herring, Ferguson and Henderson combined on a time of 8:18.87 to finish third in the 4 x 800 relay.
In addition, three Hornets scored in the 400, led by Gregory in fourth (52.29), Brumfield fifth (52.55) and freshman Dylan Witcher seventh (52.57).
Bresner Austin was fifth in the 1600 with a time of 4:37.51 while Brady Bingaman finished seventh (10:35.55) and Mason Lewis eighth (10:41.82) in the 3200.
“I want to recognize the great work that my assistant coach, B.J. Schuller, has done with our throwers,” Oury said. “They were a huge part of this win.
“Brooke Meister has done a wonderful job helping coach our middle distance runners, and it is so nice to have Keith Dale back and healthy after his surgery,” the coach added. “He does a wonderful job with our vaulters.
“We also had some ninth graders step up and score some points in several events, which is a testament to their coaches at the junior high,” noted Oury. “Coaches John Orr and Ben Perry and the rest of the junior high coaches did a great job with their athletes and it showed in this meet.”
All of the athletes who finished in the top eight of their events qualified for the 6A State Track meet at Rogers Heritage on Thursday, May 6.
