Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Wearing Her Rival Hyde Out
PRAIRIE GROVE GIRLS DO WELL AT STATE TRACK AND FIELD MEET
PRAIRIE GROVE — After a strong showing at the 4A-1 Conference track and field meet held at Pea Ridge in April, the Prairie Grove girls followed that up with a number of top 15 places in various events at state.
Bostain Wins 3200
The State 4A meet was held May 2 at Pocahontas. Topping the list of achievements among Prairie Grove athletes was sophomore Bekah Bostain becoming a state champion in the 3200 meter.
Bostain finished with a time of 11:54.26, in front of rival Gracie Hyde, of Lonoke, in 12:26.18, and Kendall Hays, of West Fork, third in 12:52.14.
Last fall, Hyde beat Bostain, who placed second overall at the 4A state cross country meet (a 3.2 mile race). Bostain won the 2015 race, and is a two-time All-State cross country runner for Prairie Grove. Her rival may have been looking past her.
“That girl (Hyde) is a beast,” said second-year Prairie Grove girls track and field coach Dana Froud. “She had said she was going to try to beat the state record in the two mile (3200 meter).”
Undaunted, Bostain charged out of the gate, maintained a fast pace, forcing Hyde to keep up, and led every lap on her way to victory.
“She (Bostain) wore her out,” Froud said.
Running On Grit
Froud is also singing the praises of Megan Thompson who placed seventh in the 1600 meter run with a time of 6:01.80. Thompson is a multi-sport athlete, who participates in cross country, soccer, track and field, as well as volleyball.
“She plays soccer, she might have been to three track practices all year,” Froud said.
Megan Thompson won the 1600 meter race at the 4A Conference with a time of 6:20.13, in front of second place finisher Samantha Preston, of Berryville, in 6:35.05.
“She just won out of grit, she just ran hard,” Froud said. “She plays a lot of sports. She does a lot of things.”
In the girls 200-meter dash, freshman Jacquelynn Jenkins placed 11th with a time of 28.53. She placed 15th in the 100-meter in 13.69. Jenkins placed first in the 200 meter turning in a time of 28.44, and second in 13.56 in the 100 meter at the 4A-1 Conference meet, after running in the junior conference meet the week before. Froud promoted her to varsity for the senior high conference meet and Jenkins thrived.
“She actually did better in the high school meet than in the junior meet,” Froud said.
Mind Conditioning
Finishing in 13th place at the State 4A meet were the 4 x 800 meter relay team of Kaylee Elder, Lexie Madewell, Audrey Doering, and Bostian with a time of 11:53.88. The same group won the event at the 4A-1 Conference meet with a time of 11:39.59.
Froud recalled the girls’ desire to place in the top-two at district in order to qualify for state.
“They were striving to get second, but they came in first by one 1/100th of a second,” Froud said. “That’s all a credit to my husband (Prairie Grove girls basketball coach Kevin Froud). The basketball girls (Elder, Madewell and Doering) are just tough, they’re strong-minded. They are used to hurting. Everyone of them sprinted the last 100 yards. Nobody else did that. Bekah sprinted all the way. She was neck in neck with another girl and she came in first by 1/100th of a second.”
Program Boost
Froud is pleased with the direction the program is going after taking over as Prairie Grove girls coach after the second meet in 2016.
“When I took over last year, we pretty much had two girls running on the senior high team,” Froud said. “This year we had 16 girls for senior high and 23 girls in junior high.”
BOYS
Senior Sol Walker nailed down 11th place in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.19. Sophomore Nick Pohlman was 14th in the long jump with a distance of 17-09.50.