Panthers boys take fifth in 5A-West meet, girls eighth
■ Jace Sutulovich won conference titles in the shot put and discus.
The Siloam Springs track and field program hosted the 5A-West Conference Championship Meet on Tuesday at Glenn W. Black Stadium.
The top four finishers in each event qualified to participate in the Class 5A state meet, which will be at Van Buren on Thursday, May 5.
“We had beautiful weather for the meet and I told the kids they should have a PR (personal record) day with out regrets or excuses,” said Siloam Springs boys track coach Chuck Jones. “Just about everyone at least had a season best time. We can’t ask more than their best.”
Siloam Springs wound up with 12 athletes qualifying for the state meet.
“We compete in a pretty tough track conference so I was pleased with our results,” Jones said.
Vilonia swept the boys and girls conference championships.
Boys
Siloam Springs finished fifth overall in the boys meet.
Vilonia scored 162.33 points to take first place, while Mountain Home was second at 152.16, followed by Russellville 112, Greenbrier 103.5, Siloam Springs 64, Van Buren 43, Greenwood 40 and Alma 22.
Jace Sutulovich won the conference championship in the shot put with a throw of 53 feet, 2.5 inches, while Jackson Boles was 12th at 36-11.5, Jonathan Bishop 13th at 36-9.25 and Jason Courtney 19th at 30-9.25.
Sutulovich also won the conference title in the discus with a throw of 150-4 with Alexis Miranda sixth at 119-9, Noah Race seventh at 1190 and Chris King 10th at 108-11.
Malachi Becan finished third in the 200-meter dash at 23.68 with Danilo Pozo sixth at 24.07, Silas Tugwell 10th at 24.40 and Jonathon Graves 20th at 25.05.
“Malachi has come out of his shell this season,” Jones said. “We thought it was in there. He had a super meet qualifying in three events.”
Tugwell finished third in the triple jump at 41-2.5, with Mikey McKinley 10th at 39-0.5, Michael Rauch 17th at 36-7.5 and Rustin Shirley 22nd at 28-5.
“Silas was in a three-way tie for first going into the last jumper who took the victory with a two-inch improvement,” Jones said.
Rauch finished seventh in the long jump at 19-4 with Tugwell in 11th at 19-1.75, McKinley 21st at 17-10 and Stone Stephens 23rd at 15-8.25.
Marcus Molina placed eighth in the 400-meter dash at 55.09 with Daxton Spence 15th at 57.26.
Wilson Cunningham placed 12th in the 800-meter run at 2:13.04, with Levi Fox 14th at 2:13.78, Conner Mitchell 17th at 2:20.12 and Anthony Cruz 21st at 2:26.34.
Malachi Becan finished 12th in the pole vault at 10-6 with Cooper Church 13th at 10-6 and Jadon Gill 15th at 10-0.
Tommy Seitz finished 14th in the 1,600-meter run at 4:58.41 with Cruz 20th at 5:31.16, Jared Brewer 21st at 5:35.57 and Caleb Wallace 23rd at 5:50.77.
Seitz took 14th in the 3,200-meter run at 11:13.02 with Brewer 21st at 12:22.67, Wallace 22nd at 13:13.99 and Reese Hardcastle 23rd at 14:34.24.
Malachi Becan placed 15th in the 100-meter dash at 11.86 followed by Jose Rico in 16th at 11.89 and Gio Flores 24th at 12.60.
Javier Chavez placed 15th in the 300-meter hurdles at 47.36, while Zach Jones was 16th at 50.08.
The Panthers’ 4x100-meter relay team of Rico, Cooper Church, Stone Stephens and Mikey McKinley finished sixth at 46.34.
The 4x200-meter relay team of Tugwell, Pozo, Graves and Malachi Becan had a second place finish of 1:33.73.
“The 4x200-meter relay was a highlight for me,” Jones said.
“I knew we had potential to have a fast relay, but we haven’t had a single meet with the same four boys running due to various injuries. That was exciting race to see.”
The 4x400-meter relay team of Cunningham, Pozo, Malachi Becan and Molina placed third at 3:34.18.
The 4x800-meter relay team of Cunningham, Fox, Mitchell and Liam Scott took fifth place at 8:35.65.
Girls
The Lady Panthers finished eighth out of eight teams.
Vilonia took first place with a team score of 194, followed by Russellville 156.5, Mountain Home 95.5, Van Buren 90, Alma 54, Greenbrier 37, Greenwood 34 and Siloam Springs 31.
Esther Norwood placed second in the triple jump at 33-0, just one inch behind Addison Vanriper of Russellville (33-1 for first place). Jeri Roy was 11th at 31-0.
“We talk about how it would come down to inches,” Jones said. “Esther lost the gold by one inch.”
Norwood placed third in the 300-meter hurdles at 50.21.
Avah Duncan placed fourth in the discus at 1022 with Cora Dewey ninth at 85-5, Oneida Batres 12th at 80-7 and Marlen Favela 21st at 64-8.
Reese Sutulovich placed fifth in the shot put at 31-8 with Dewey 10th at 28-3, Batres 13th at 27-3.75 and Favela 19th at 22-7.5.
Roy finished seventh in the long jump at 15-1.75, while Norwood was 10th at 14-2.5 and Anahi Quinonez 12th at 13-0.5.
Jaclyn Weilnau took ninth place at 6:01.86 with Shayla Conley 13th at 6:11.48 and Anna Floyd 21st at 7:26.74.
Conley placed 11th in the 3,200-meter run at 14:09.98 with Floyd 14th at 16:48.77.
Bailey Church finished 11th in the 400-meter dash at 1:09.85.
Kadynce Frost finished 13th in the 200-meter dash at 29.42 with Quinonez 24th at 32.42 and Destiny Poteet 25th at 34.34.
Norwood finished 15th in the 100-meter dash at 14.01 with Roy 18th at 14.25, Frost 20th at 14.31 and Quinonez 24th at 15.39.
The 4x100-meter relay team of Roy, Norwood, Church and Weilnau took third place with a time of 4:29.46.