Royal finishes first in all six of her events to lead Lady Hornets to meet title at Cabot
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CABOT — Behind a 45-point performance from junior Alexis Royal and 23 points from sophomore Leah Ward,[more] the Bryant Lady Hornets took the team championship at the Cabot/Walmart Invitational track meet Tuesday night.
Bryant scored 155 points with Cabot taking runner-up with 107 points. Conway was third with 105 points. There were 11 teams at the meet.
Royal’s performance earned her the meet’s female outstanding athlete award. She took first place in all six of the events she competed in. In the long jump, she jumped a personal best 17’6”. In the triple jump, she leaped 37’3”. She won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.6 and also won the 300-meter hurdles in 47.6.
Royal was also a member of both sprint relay teams that finished first. In all four of her individual events, she surpassed the automatic qualifier mark for the 7A State Championship meet to be held May 3.
Ward took second to Royal in both the long jump (16’7”) and the triple jump (33’10”). She also took third in the 100-meter dash (12.9). She was also a member of both sprint relays that took first place.
“I thought Alexis and Leah had outstanding performances tonight,” stated Lady Hornets coach Danny Westbrook. “They give us an awesome one-two punch in the jumps. This is the second consecutive time this season that Alexis has won the high point award.”
Sophomore Melinda Murdock added 17 points with her third place finish in both the 100-meter hurdles (17.0) and the 300-meter hurdles (48.7). She was also on the 3200-meter relay and the 1600-meter relay.
Junior Hannah Raney scored 13 points with her third place performance in the 3200-meter run and a fourth place in the 1600-meter run.
Senior Lauren Magneson added 10 points by taking first place in the high jump with jump of 5’1”.
Other Scorers for the Lady Hornets:
100-meter dash – Mekaylah Muhammad – 8th – 13.5
200-meter dash – Gabrelle Allen – 6th – 28.0
400-meter dash – Randie Owens – 2nd – 67.0
800-meter run – Sam Macchi – 3rd – 2:38.7, Stacy Emmerling – 4th – 2:40.6
1600-meter run – Stacy Emmerling — 5th – 5:51.4
4 x 100-meter relay – (Sarah Evans, Ward, Allen, Royal) – 1st – 50.1
4 x 400-meter relay – (Emmerling, Royal, Ward, Murdock) – 1st – 4:21.8
4 x 800-meter relay – (Raney, Murdock, Emmerling, Anna Smedley) – 2nd – 10:27.4
“I thought we got an outstanding team effort tonight,” Westbrook said. “Even though we had a few individuals that scored a lot of points, almost everybody on the team scored and got a ribbon.
“Alexis qualified in four events for the state meet and our 4 x 100-meter relay team also qualified,” he noted. “That always bodes well for the end of the season.”
