EHS finishes second at Prescott
El Dorado's girls finished second Thursday in the Prescott Wolves Relays and set a pair of meet records in the process as they geared up for next week's Oil Belt. The Lady Wildcats scored 117 points to place behind Texarkana (132) in the 13-team field.
The Wildcats finished fourth in the boys' division out of 17 schools.
“Another good day where we tried to figure out where we were
as a team,” said John Koonce, coach of the Lady Wildcats. “We put some girls in some events they haven't ran before. We had some good surprises with Jordan Smith in the 200, Carshaila Rozier in the 400 and Bridashia Ray in the long jump.”
Carshaila Rozier won the high jump and placed third in the 400. She didn't miss a jump and cleared 5-6, setting a new meet record.
“We stopped her at 5-6 because we did not feel great about the safety of that pit,” said Koonce. “We saw the 5-6. We felt good about it. We felt like she could go more but, safety-wise, it was time to stop.”
Jordan Smith won the long jump with 16-feet and was second in the 200. D'Aujhene Dade was second in the 100. Tajah Edmondson was second in the triple jump and third in the 100. Ray was third in the long jump. Anastasia Brock was fourth in the 200. Breyonna Steward was fourth in the 400 and fifth in the triple jump. Devin James was fourth in the high jump. Charalyn Rester was fifth in the 100 hurdles. Kamya Bryant was fifth in the shot.
El Dorado won the 4x100 in 50.90 with D'Aja Dade, D'Aujhene Dade, Edmondson and Smith. The combination of D'Aujhene Dade, Steward, Smith and Rozier won the 4x200 in a meet record time of 1:48.40.
“Our 4x200 team was a new team we thought would be pretty good and we were right,” said Koonce. “They won that race pretty handily but the team they beat was Texarkana. I know Texarkana will be coming for revenge next week, so they'd better be ready.”
The Wildcats totaled 61 points to finish behind Texarkana (97.5), Magnolia (96.5) and Nashville (83.5).
Jadon Cunningham won the 1,600 in a time of 4:51.22. Coach DeAnthony Curtis said Cunningham was impressive in breaking the 5-minute barrier.
“He's done it before but yesterday it was easy for him,” said Curtis. “He made it look effortless. He did it by himself.”
El Dorado's 4x100 of Sharmon Rester, PJ Denkins, Jackie Washington and DeAndra Burns, Jr., took first in a time of 43.31. Calvin Huang, Denkins, Burns and Cunningham won the 4x400 in a time of 3:35.69.
“We had a terrible day in the 4x100, but we still won,” said Curtis. “They're pretty good but with me, everything could be better. Our motto is we have to work on something whether we win or we lose.”
Burns was second in the long jump. Rester was fourth in the 100. Washington was fifth in the 200.
Burns did not compete in the 100 or 200.
“I just wanted to see somebody else. He's already qualified for state in the 200,” said Curtis. “To me, there's no point in running the 200. I just wanted to see what else I have on the team, where I can score more points.”
Overall, the coach said Wildcats are coming along.
“Eloy Rodriguez had a great day. He had a PR for himself. We've got some good things going on in the program,” noted Curtis.
“Jackie had a great day. Sharmon looked good in the 100. Mario, for his first meet coming out of basketball, ran very well. He ran a great leg on the 4x200. We just need to clean up hand-offs on all the relays and I think this team will be really good.”
El Dorado will host the Oil Belt Relays on Thursday, beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. The Wildkitten Relays will be held on Monday with the Freshman Oil Belt scheduled for Tuesday.
Two weeks into the track season and the competition and rivalries have already started to simmer.
“This is two weeks in a row that Texarkana has beaten us,” said Koonce. “They beat us by a little less this week than last week. We are going to try to put a team out to challenge them at our home meet. I feel good about our chances, but Texarkana is a very good team. So, we'd better show up ready to compete.” the