CABOT — In a strong, deep conference for track, the Bryant Hornets stood fourth after the first day of competition at the 7A-Central track and field championship meet on Tuesday, May 5.With 49 points, Conway appeared poised to run away with the team title. Cabot was second with 34 points and Russellville third with 21.
The Hornets finished the day with 16 points and were working to turn in their best times and get as many qualified for the Class 7A State meet as possible.To that end, the Hornets’ 4×800 meter relay team of Colton Klaus, Tyler Freshour, Brandon Mueller and Michael Smith turned in a season-best time of 8:37 to place fourth.
Also scoring for the Hornets were Troy Smith in the high jump (4th in 5' 8"); Tanner Tolbert in the triple jump (5th in 41' 11"); and Jordan Murdock in the shot put (7th in 40' 9").[more]
“Overall, our point total was close to where I expected,” said Hornets coach Steve Oury. “We thought Tolbert might finish a little higher in the triple jump, but Troy Smith finished higher in the high jump than we expected, so it about evened out.
“The 4×800 team did a great job,” he added. “Three of the four running set new personal records.
“Jordan Murdock did a nice job in the shot, getting seventh,” Oury noted. “He just missed earning a trip to State.”
Preliminaries were held in the sprint events and Tolbert qualified for Thursday's finals in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Tolbert's time in the 100 was 11.46 and, in the 200, he qualified with a time of 23.34.
“Tanner is our workhorse,” Oury mentioned. “He did a nice job in qualifying in the dashes.
“The biggest disappointment in the day was that we didn’t get any of our other sprinters qualified,” he continued. “Chris Brooks was the first non-qualifier in the 100 and Kendrick Farr was the first non-qualifier in the 200. They both ran well but we are in a tough sprint conference.
“Hopefully, we can pick up some surprise points Thursday, qualify some people for State, and finish in the top half of the conference,” he concluded.
Finals in the running events Thursday were set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
