Schools from throughout the Three Rivers area competed for the chance to call themselves state champions during the state track meet this week.
The Batesville Lady Pioneers emerged victorious in 5A, outscoring Monticello 123.2-108 Thursday.
As a team, Batesville placed second in the 3,200-meter relay, sixth in the 400-meter relay and fourth in the 1,600-meter relay.
Individually, Batesville had many top performers, including Chelsea Tate (first in the high jump with a height of 5-1), Madison Neely (second in the long jump, second in the 100-meter hurdles and second in the 300-meter hurdles), Symone Connely (fourth in the long jump), Liz Walton (first in the triple jump with a distance of 35-4, first in the pole vault with a height of 10-0 and first in the 400-meter run with a time of 59.81), Larissa Wells (fifth in the shot-put), Savannah Stewart (fifth in the pole vault and fourth in the 100-meter hurdles), Betsy Ives (sixth in the pole vault), Kelsie Wilson (fifth in the 1,600-meter run and fourth in the 3,200-meter run) and Molly Matthews (sixth in the 1,600-meter run and sixth in the 800-meter run).
Other individual performers at the 5A level include James Anderson of Beebe, who was first in the high jump with a height of 6-8.
Batesville was not the only school to experience success this week.
The Pocahontas Lady Redskins finished third in the 4Astate meet, the Harding Academy Wildcats finished fourth in the 3A meet, and the Searcy Lady Lions finished fifth in the 6A meet.
As a team, Harding Academy finished seventh in the 400-meter relay, third in the 1,600-meter relay and fifth in the 3,200-meter relay.
The story of the week, however, was the individual performances put up by athletes in all classifications in the Three Rivers area.
Dee Gibbs of Harding Academy finished first in the 400-meter run with a time of 49.87, which was a new class 3A state record, breaking the previous mark by almost two seconds.
Wade Johnson of Bradford finished first in the 1A pole-vault competition with a height of 10-0. Brittney Strothers of Cushman finished first in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:55.55 and first in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 13:00.45.
Second-place finishers included Kristen Celsor of Searcy in the 6A high-jump competition, Chelsea Butler of Searcy in the 6A discus event and Emily Carroll of Melbourne in the 1A 3,200-meter run.
Other top performers in the 6A classification included Searcy's Kyle Campbell, who finished third in the 110-meter high hurdles and sixth in the 300-meter high hurdles. Josh McFalls of Searcy finished third in the long jump and sixth in the pole vault, and Kyle Brown finished seventh in the 3,200-meter run.
On the girls' side, Shalisha Anthony of Searcy finished thirdin the high jump, fourth in the 200-meter dash and sixth in the 400-meter run. In addition to her second-place finish in the high jump, Celsor finished fourth in the discus, fourth in the 300-meter low hurdles and eighth in the 100-meter high hurdles. Molly Roberts, also of Searcy, finished sixth in the pole vault.
In the 3A events, the top eight finishers in nearly every event was littered with names of athletes from the Three Rivers area.
Molly Moon of Rose Bud finished third in the 1,600-meter run to go along with her sixthplace finish in the 800-meter run.
Harding Academy's John Ford finished fourth in the pole vault, and his teammates also had good showings. Gibbs, who set the state record in the 400-meter run, finished fifth in the 200-meter dash. Chase Gentry had a sixth-place finish in the long jump to go along with his eighth-place finish in the 100-meter dash. Daniel Stevens finished seventh in the 1,600-meter run, Zach Kirby finished sixth in the 1,600-meter run, Matt Phillips finished fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles and sixth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Jon Walker finished eighth in the shot-put, and Marc Davis finished eighth in the high jump.
Hoxie's Josh Cypret finished in a tie for fifth in the pole vault, Salem's Forrest Rose finished eighth in the 1,600-meter run and Riverview's Cody Hampton finished eighth in the 110-meter high hurdles.
On the girls' side of the 3Aevent, Harding Academy's Ciarra Farmer finished fifth in the shotput, and Jordan Weber finished seventh in the 100-meter high hurdles. Salem's Courtney Falco finished fourth in the 3,200-meter run, Riverview's Alexis Reed finished fifth in the 3,200-meter run, and Hoxie's Tanya Sisco finished in a tie for sixth place in the pole vault.
In the 1A events, teams from the Three Rivers area had just as much success.
Melbourne's Emily Carroll finished fourth in the 1,600-meter run, and fifth-place finishers included Bradford's Taylor Hastings in the 200-meter dash and Alesha Pankey of Bradford in the 800-meter run.
Bradford's Wade Johnson finished sixth in the long jump and eighth in the 110-meter high hurdles, Melbourne's K. Smith finished seventh in the long jump, Cushman's Haley Jones finished seventh in the triple jump, and Cody Riedy of Rural Special finished seventh in the 100-meter dash and seventh in the 400-meter run.
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Three Rivers, Pages 131 on 05/18/2008