VAN BUREN — Behind a 35-point performance from senior Alexis Royal, the Bryant Lady Hornets[more] track team took fourth place in the team competition at the 7A-West Confernce Championship Thursday night at Van Buren.
Bentonville won the meet with 175 points. Fayetteville finished runner-up with 130 followed by Har-Ber (89), Bryant (87), Van Buren (49), Rogers (46), Springdale (44) and Heritage (42).
“I was proud of how our girls competed tonight,” stated Bryant coach Danny Westbrook. “Some were a little disappointed with our fourth-place team finish because of the success we have had this season. I think the response to that is — welcome to the 7A West. In track and field, this conference is probably the strongest in Arkansas.
“We have qualified athletes in 13 events for the State meet at Bentonville next week,” he noted. “I think we have an opportunity to win State titles in several individual events.”
Royal won the conference title in both horizontal jumping events. She took first in the long jump with a leap of 17’10” and then won the triple jump with a jump of 36’2”. In the 300-meter hurdles, she finished third with a time of 46.6. She added a fourth place in the 100-meter hurdles (15.8). She also ran on both sprint relay teams that finished second.
Sophomore Feniece Boone scored 20 points. She took the conference title in the 400-meter dash with a winning time of 58.5. She also added a third place finish in the 200-meter dash in 25.9. She was also a member of both sprint relay teams that finished runner-up.
Junior Leah Ward contributed 13 points. She took fifth in the 100-meter dash (12.9), sixth in the long jump (16’11”), and seventh in the 200-meter dash (27.2). She was also a member of both sprint relay teams that finished second.
Junior Melinda Murdock added 11 points. She took third in the 800-meter run (2:20.6) and eighth in the 100-meter hurdles (16.7). She was the fourth member of the two sprint relay teams that took second.
Royal, Boone, Murdock, and Ward were all named 7A-West all-conference due to their top three performances.
Other top eight scorers for the Lady Hornets:
4 x 100-meter relay – Murdock, Boone, Ward, Royal – 2nd – 48.8
4 x 400-meter relay – Murdock, Royal, Ward, Boone – 2nd – 4:03.9
4 x 800-meter relay – Hannah Raney, Talyn Billins, Haley Hood, Caitlyn Bell – 4th – 10:10
Pole Vault – Randie Owens – 7th – 7’6”
400-meter dash – Haley Hood – 8th – 1:03.7
