Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Williams scores, Billington soars for 6A-West teams
Sydney Billington wasn’t satisfied with breaking the state record in the girls’ high jump on Saturday. So, she did it again. And again. Billington broke the record three times in the same day during the Class 5A/6A State Indoor Track Meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center. She first cleared 5-8 to surpass the previous record of 5-7, which was held by Hannah Martin of Rogers. Billington then broke her own record by clearing 5-9 and 5-10.
For her performance, Billington is the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette girls Athlete of the Week. Corey Williams Jr. of Fayetteville is the boys Athlete of the Week.
Billington is a junior at Bentonville, and her performance helped the Lady Tigers win the team title in Class 6A. Billington broke the record three times while, occasionally, being distracted by people walking across and near the jumping path at the indoor facility in Fayetteville.
She had to refocus while attempting to hold off stiff competition from a quality field of high jumpers, including her teammate, Lexi Matlock, and Kiana Cooley-Hayes of Springdale, who both cleared 5-7 to tie the previous state record.
Billington cleared 5-8 on her first attempt, then cleared both 5-9 and 5-10 on her third and final attempts at those heights.
“I had not seen competition of that quality in Arkansas since I’ve been here, but Sydney was the show,” Bentonville girls coach Randy Ramaker said. “She’s really level-headed and kind of holds things in. But she was excited about what she did, and we were excited for her.”
Williams scored 35 points against Rogers Heritage and tied a school record with eight 3-pointers he now shares with former Bulldog Payton Willis, who plays at Minnesota.
Williams is a junior who averages 13 points per game.
“Corey was due for something like that,” Fayetteville coach Brad Stamps said Williams’ scoring spree against Heritage. “He has a great work ethic and the basket felt big for him that night. He scored his points in the rhythm of the offense. He didn’t force it.”
Williams was also instrumental in Fayetteville’s 70-65 victory in overtime at Springdale Har-Ber. He scored 17 points and helped the Bulldogs secure the 6A-West’s second seed and a first-round bye for the Class 6A State Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Bryant.
Williams made a clutch free throw with 4.5 seconds left to tie the game 57-57 after Har-Ber called timeout in an attempt to rattle him. He then opened the overtime session with a 3-pointer for the Bulldogs, who won the game after trailing 23-10 after one quarter.
Rick Fires can be reached at rfires@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWARick.