Lake Hamilton girls take 5A state title
RUSSELLVILLE — Lakeside and Lake Hamilton high schools represented Garland County at Wednesday’s Class 5A state track and field championship at Russellville High School, where the Lake Hamilton girls brought home a state title.
GIRLS
The Lady Wolves won the meet with 86 overall points, followed by Russellville with 79, Vilonia with 66, White Hall with 61, and El Dorado with 48. The Lady Rams finished eighth out of the 28 teams with 33 points.
“It really was just a great overall team effort,” Lake Hamilton head coach Brandon Starr said of his team, which finished runner-up the past two seasons. “In the past, we have had those really outstanding distance runners. … Just really happy with all of them. I know they wanted it for a long time.”
The Lady Wolves also won the Class 5A South conference meet, held at Wolf Stadium on April 23, with 177 points.
“I told them on the ride it was not going to be easy,” he said. “Good things in life are rarely handed to you, that most of the time, you got to go out and earn them or take them yourself, and they did that. They competed well enough to earn themselves the right to call themselves 5A State Champions. Russellville gave us a good push. … It really became a two-horse race between us and (Russellville), and really (did) in the last couple of minutes, so that was fun. The girls were amped up.”
Individually, Lake Hamilton’s Mikaela Miller won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.82, while finishing runner-up in the 100-meter dash at 12.26.
“Mikaela Miller did Mikaela Miller things,” he said. “She scored in everything she participated in, five events. Those distance girls too, I mean, there is a handful of them too.”
The Lady Wolves’ 4x800-meter relay team took second place with a 10:06.88 time.
Lakeside’s Allie Quast won the pole vault competition, clearing 11-6.
“The highlights there was Allie Quast is a state champion in the pole vault,” Lakeside head coach Jeff Haynes said. “She won it, and also Brendal Brunet broke the school record in the 3200. She went 11:53. She is a freshman, and then Darian Rhodes and she broke the school record in the 400. … (The) next couple of years could be fun.”
Haynes noted his team is young and shows promise over the next few seasons.
BOYS
In boys’ action, Mountain Home took the top spot out of the 25 teams, tallying 103 points, while Lakeside finished fifth with 66 points and Lake Hamilton seventh with 31.
The Rams won the Class 5A South conference meet at Lake Hamilton on April 23, scoring 178.5 points.
“The level of what the 5A track has moved up in the last three or four years is just amazing,” Haynes said. “Just to look at the times and look at everything that has dropped, and the qualifying standards have gotten so much faster. And I do not see it
reversing. I do not see it going the other direction.”
In individual results, senior Joseph Bariola took first place in the 1600-meter run with a 4:10.15 time and first place in the 3200-meter run with a 9:48.61. He finished third in the 800-meter run at 1:56.34.
Lakeside’s Quardarius Jackson took third in both the 110-meter hurdles (15.36) and 300-meter hurdles (40.20). The Rams’ 4x400-meter relay team finished runner-up at 3:27.35.
Haynes said that was one of the team’s highest finishes ever.
“Of course, led by Joe Bariola,” he said. “I just realized this morning he broke his state record in the 1600. He broke it (Wednesday). Then Chase Dew broke our school record in the 400. The first Lakeside athlete to go under 50 seconds. He went 49.85. And then Quardarius Jackson is our freshman and he set school records in the 110 and the 300 hurdles.”
Lake Hamilton’s Brayden Burris won the state long jump competition (22-10.25) while classmate Noah Stack took the pole vault title (15-3). The Wolves’ Dylan Smith finished runner-up in the pole vault at 14-6.
Starr said the Wolves have improved this season, noting that the team only scored about seven points last season.
“We got a lot of points this year from events that we have not in the past,” he said. “I feel great. Brayden Burris broke his own school record again and he actually won. … I mean that is a pretty impressive long jump up there.
“We have got three boys who scored in the pole vault. Went first, second, and seventh there. So that was great. Morry Sanders is doing Morry Sanders things — Coach Sanders getting our boys back on track in the pole vault. We also had some distance throwers that made the finals.”
Starr gave MVP honors to Burris and Noah Stack on the boys’ team.
“I would probably go with co-MVPs there,” he said. “Both winning their events. Brayden Burris in long jump with a school record and then Noah Stack setting a PR for himself and winning pole vault with a jump of 15 feet, 3 inches.”