PEARCY — It was a long day on Friday as the Class 5A and Class 6A State track meets were held at Lake Hamilton High School. Beyond just the numbers, the event was peppered with rain off and on.
And it was a big of a disappointing day for the Bryant Hornets, who managed just 24 points to finish eighth in a field of 14 teams.
Fayetteville won the team title with 158.5 points. Bentonville was second with 110.5 followed by Conway with 75 and North Little Rock with 54.5.
The Hornets’ top finishes came in the high jump from Josh Robinson, who cleared 6’6” to finish fourth, and the 4×800 meter relay team of Jake Dreher, Hagan Austin, Hunter Ulmer and Ammon Henderson, which turned in an 8:11.40 clocking to finish fourth.
Henderson turned in a 2:01.65 to finish fifth in 800 while Robinson was seventh in the 400 with a time of 51.80. Michael Chatmon’s shot put went 44’5.75” to place eighth.
In the other relays, Joseph Young, Braden Williams, Braylon Butler and Robinson combined on a 43.46 in the 4×100 to finish sixth; J’Lun Herron, Darrick Rose, River Gregory and Robinson ran a 3:33.78 to place eighth in the 4×400.
“Overall we finished about where we were expected to, although I feel like we left a lot of points out there,” said Hornets coach Steve Oury. “We knew points would be a lot harder to come by than at conference, but we still could have done better.
“I thought the 4 x 800 relay team had an outstanding day, as they took 10 seconds off of their season best time,” he noted. “Ammon Henderson did a great job of coming back and getting fifth in the 800. Darius Daniels was a real surprise in the discus, placing sixth with a throw of 133 feet, which was a personal record by 9 feet.
“Hopefully we will have some good performances at the Meet of Champs next week.” the coach said. “We should have a few who qualify.”
Oury added, “Our coaches have all done a great job this season. B.J. Schuller has worked with our discus throwers, John Orr has coached shot put, Cindy Jones has coached all the jumpers, Keith Dale has coached both pole vault and hurdles, Lawrence Jefferson has worked with girls sprinters, Brooke Meister has worked with our middle distance runners, and DeAngelo Arnett has worked with our sprinters. It’s a challenge to coach all 17 events in track and field, so I feel like we have been very fortunate to have this coaching staff working with our athletes.”
The Meet of Champs is Saturday, May 11 at Lake Hamilton. The Heptathlon and Decathlon will be held in Fayetteville May 15-16.
