Cold wind blows, puts chill on Gravette track meet

GRAVETTE — With overcast skies and temperatures hovering around the 50-degree mark, 16 teams from Northwest Arkansas and one from Eastern Oklahoma gathered at Lion Stadium March 16 for the Gravette High School Invitational Relays track meet.

The athletes faced brisk 1520 mile-an-hour west winds which dropped temperatures to the upper 40s by sunset and forced some athletes to resort to some strange means to stay warm. One resourceful young athlete kept his warm-ups on during his high jump attempt, which failed. Overall, the athletes endured the conditions and performed very well during their events.

Bentonville West won both the boys and girls meets. The host team, Gravette, placed third in the girls’ competition behind strong performances by Anne Jorgensen, who placed second in the shot put, and in the girls 4x800meter relay (with team members Tori Foster, Berenice Garcia, Sally Bird and Gracie Berger).

Decatur finished fourth on an outstanding performance by Desi Meek, who placed second behind teammate Meagan Smith in the pole vault, and first in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles. Cameron Shaffer also performed well, finishing fourth in both the shot put and discus.

Siloam Springs finished the boys meet in fifth, just ahead of sixth-place Gentry. Decatur finished in eighth and Gravette 11th.

Decatur’s Bracy Owens placed first in the pole vault, with Gentry’s Cole Cripps finishing second. Mason Clark of Gentry placed first in the discus and second in the shot put. Taylor Haisman of Decatur took first in the 800-meter run.

Boys Team Results

Bentonville West scored 153 points to win the boys meet, followed by: Farmington, second, 70; Springdale Har-Ber, third, 63; Fayetteville, fourth, 49.50; Siloam Springs, fifth, 48; Gentry, sixth, 44; Pea Ridge, seventh, 43; Decatur, eighth, 40.33; Shiloh Christian, ninth, 39; Greenland, 10th, 35; Gravette, 11th, 26.83; Haas Hall Academy, 12th, 13; Providence Classical Christian, 13th, 12; Prairie Grove, 14th, 10.33; Westville, 15th, 8; Haas Hall-Bentonville, 16th, 3; and Lincoln, 17th, 2.

Girls Team Results

Bentonville West scored 120 points to take the girls meet, followed by: Siloam Springs, 73.50, second; Gravette, 56, third; Decatur, 49, fourth; Fayetteville, 47, fifth; Providence Classical Christian, 42, sixth; West Fork, 32, seventh; Greenland, 32, eighth; Farmington, 31, ninth; Pea Ridge, 31, 10th; Har-ber, 22, 11th; Westville, 21, 12th; Prairie Grove, 21, 13th; Shiloh Christian, 16, 14th; Haas Hall, 16, 15th; Lincoln, 3.50, 16th; and Elkins, 3, 17th.

Photo by Mike Eckels Decatur’s Desi Meek sails over a hurdle in the 100-meter hurdles. Meek captured first place in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles to give the Decatur girls a fourthplace finish in the meet.

Photo by Mike Eckels Decatur’s Bracy Owens clears the bar at 12 feet, 6 inches, to take first place in the pole vault at the Gravette High School Invitational Relay at Lion Stadium in Gravette.

Photo by Mike Eckels Gentry’s Cole Cripps pushes away his pole as he clears the bar during the pole vault event. Cripps finished in second place after matching Owens’ vault.