Schools from throughout the Tri-Lakes area competed for the chance to call themselves state champions during the state track meet this week.
Few had more success than Lake Hamilton High School, which hosted the 6A state track meet.
Both the Wolves and Lady Wolves finished in the top three with the boys bringing home their first state championship by outscoring secondplace Texarkana 129 -107.5. The defending state champion Lady Wolves managed a third-place overall finish with 112.3 points.
"It's so hard to find the word s ," hea d coa ch K a rl Koonce said. "It was a very exciting moment here winning the first outdoor championship. We won it basically on field events."
In the team events, the Wolves won the 3,200-meter relay with a time of 8:25.46 and the 1,600-meter relay with a time of 3:29.02. The Lady Wolves won the 3,200-meter relay with a time of 10:18.56 and finished second in the 1,600-meter relay and fifth in the 400-meter relay.
Individual performances nea rly over shadowed t he team performances Thursday. Stephanie Foreman broke her own record in the pole vault at 13-0.5, a half-inch better than her previous mark. In addition to the pole vault record, Foreman finished first in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 16.80.
"We think she's capable of going higher," Koonce said."We see her enough to know the potential is there."
One of Foreman's goals is to reach the Olympic standard of 13-9, Koonce said. If things work out right, she may give an attempt at that mark during the Meet of Champions,also held at Lake Hamilton Wednesday beginning at 1 p.m.
Jessica Weatherford also won her competition, the discus, with a distance of 112-1.
On the boys' side A mos Gerber won two individual events - the 3,200-meter run with a time of 9:54.36 and the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:32. Ethan Turpen won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:00.81 and finished second in the high jump.
Turpin came away with the high-point award, Koonce said, coming from behind in all of his victories including relays.
"He showed a lot of heart, and so did a lot of people," Koonce said. "Weatherford and Ewing were coming off meniscus surgery. The whole team did a great job."
It was the pole-vault competition that really set Lake Hamilton apart from the crowd. The Wolves had four of the top five finishers in the event. Josh Bradley won the event with a height of 14 - 4, Sam Ew ing finished second, David Rogers finished third, and Philip Clamon finished fifth.
"The tradition at pole vaulting goes way back," Koonce said. "Assistant coach Morry Sanders had a lot to do with that. He really knows his stuff, a nd he d id a t remendou s job."
Other top finishers for the Wolves included David Mills, who finished second in the 3,200-meter run, Kevin Godwin (fifth in the 3,200-meter run), Hunter Dunn (eighth in the 3,200-meter run), Hubbell Kelsay (second in the 800-meter run), Landon Jackson (fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles), Daniel Rodely (first in the discus with a distance of 145-10) and Adam Howell (third in the discus).
For the Lady Wolves, top performers included Lexi Rasnic (seventh in the 400-meter run, seventh in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump), Kelsey Bean (second in the 800-meter run), Taylor Hornsby (fourth in the 800-meter r u n), Mea gha n Epper son (fifth in the 1,600-meter runand third in the 3,200-meter run), K irby Newcomb (second in the pole vault), Aubry Burroughs and Rachel Bennett (tied for third in the pole vault), Suzanne Fincham (sixth in the shot put) and Alley Daily (eighth in the high jump.
Lake Ha milton wa s not alone in accolades at the 6A meet; both Sheridan and Benton put in a good showing.
The Yellowjackets finished fifth in the 400 -meter relay and third in the 3,200-meter relay, while the Panthers finished fifth in the 1,600-meter relay and sixth in the 3,200-meter relay.
The Lady Yellowjackets finished seventh in the 3,200-meter relay.
Individually, both Benton and Sheridan had their share of athletes among the top performers.
Sher id a n had Q u i nton Blake (sixth in the 800-meter run and fifth in the 1,600 - meter run), Chris Marchman (fourth in the 1,600-meter run and third in the 3,200-meter run), Caleb Parker (sixth in the 1,600-meter run), Jacob Riba (eighth in the pole vault), Matt Garner (third in the shot put), Spencer Charrior (sixth in the shot put), Brittney Wreyford (fourth in the 400-meter run), Jalessa Pritchett (second in the shot put), Lacy Clarey (third in the shot put and eighth in the discus) and Amanda Watkins (seventh in the shot-put).
For Benton, Chad Taylor finished seventh in the 800-meter run and Josh Dodson had an eighth-place finish in the shot put and a sixth-place finish in the discus.
In the 5A event, the Hot Spr ings Trojans and Lady Trojans finished fourth overall, and the Arkadelphia Lady Badgers finished third.
The Lady Trojans finished first in the 400 -meter relay with a time of 49.85 and first in the 1,600-meter relay with a time of 4:14.07.
The Trojans finished first in the 3,200-meter relay with a time of 8:18.62 and first in the1,600-meter relay with a time of 3:34.80.
Arkadelphia finished second in the 400-meter relay and sixth in the 1,600-meter relay.
Arkadelphia's Jasmine Dickerson had first-place finishes in the long jump with a distance of 16 -2.5 and the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.40. Chaquita Holland finished first in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.36.
Hot Springs' Olivia Green finished second in the 100-meter dash. Larry Adkinson placed first in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:59.98. Teammate Daniel Mitchell finished second, just .05 seconds behind him.
Teams in the Tri-Lakes area also saw success at the 3A state meet.
The Magnet Cove Panthers finished fourth in the 400-meter relay and fifth in the 1,600-meter relay, and the Lady Panthers finished third overall in the meet with a seventh-place finish in the 3,200-meter relay and an eighth place finish in the 400-meter relay.
The Gurdon Lady Go-Devils finished sixth in the 400-meter relay.
Individually, few had a better day than Magnet Cove's Alyssa Merriot. She finished f irst in the 100 -meter high hurdles with a time of 15.36, breaking her own class 3A state record of 15.74. She also finished first in the 300-meter low hurdles with a time of 47.41 (she set the state record in the preliminaries with a time of 47.33).
She also finished second in the long jump with a distance of 17-1. She also finished third in the 100 -meter dash and eighth in the 200-meter dash.
Her teammates also placed in various events.
Shelby Kirk finished seventh in the 100 -meter dash and fourth in the long jump. Megan Hix finished eighth in the 100-meter high hurdles, and Callie Bennett finished fifth in the discus.
Ernest Van Horn put in asixth-place finish in the high jump to help out the Panthers' cause.
Other Tri-Lakes athletes who performed well at the event include Glen Rose's Cody Hixon (fifth in the triple jump), Courtney Walker of Gurdon (sixth in the 200-meter dash) and Bauxite's Amanda Bradbury (third in the 400-meter dash).
- emoore@ arkansasonline.com
Tri-Lakes, Pages 143, 144 on 05/18/2008