Weeks twins lead Cabot girls to 2nd

FAYETTEVILLE — Twin sisters Tori and Lexi Weeks knew they would break the girls state indoor record in the pole vault if everything went as planned Saturday.

The Cabot seniors accomplished that feat with no problem. The two of them cleared 13 feet, 6 inches and broke the previous mark of 13-0 ¼ by Lake Hamilton’s Stephanie Foreman eight years ago, but they weren’t finished at that point.

Moments later, they teamed with freshmen Tristyn Edgar and Jennifer Bond to break the 1,600-meter relay record to cap the state indoor meet for Class 5A through 7A teams at the Randal Tyson Track Center.

The Lady Panthers had a winning time of 4 minutes, 3.15 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 4:05 set by Bentonville in 2011.

Cabot scored 65 points in the meet and finished second behind Bentonville, which claimed its fourth consecutive state indoor title with 100 points.

Winning the 1,600 relay allowed Coach Leon White’s Lady Panthers to pass Fayetteville (63) and Rogers (61) in the team standings.

“Going into the 4x400, Coach told us that if we got first, we would get to be runner-up,” Lexi Weeks said.

Earlier in the meet, Weeks girls had a 1-2 finish in the long jump as Tori had a winning leap of 17-4 ¼ and Lexi finished second at 1610¾. Once they both cleared 13-6 in the pole vault, they took aim at the national high school indoor record of 143¼, but neither one of them could clear it.

“We knew we were going to get that 13-6 this year,” Tori Weeks said. “We’ve been jumping consistently over 13-6, so we were pretty sure we were going to get that one. We were hoping to get that 14-3, but we have two more indoor meets this season. We’ll have two more chances at that.”

On the boys side, Bryant saved the best for last. The Hornets’ team of Pierce Finney, Brenden Young, Steven Murdock and John Winn broke a state 1,600 mark with its time of 3:25.87, eclipsing the previous mark of 3:28.13 set in 1997.

“I start training my sprinters as if they’re running the 400,” Bryant coach Steve Oury said.

“I feel like that will give them the endurance for the season, and we happen to have some talented 400 runners.

“John and Steven, this is their baby. They love to run this event, so we were hoping to come away with a trophy.

“We came up short, but this was a good consolation prize.”

Winn also won two individual events to be one of three double winners.

He took the 400 in 49.54 seconds and teamed with Murdock for a one-two finish, then he took the 200 with a time of 22.78.

That helped Bryant earn a third-place finish with 87 points.

Bentonville won a second consecutive boys title with 101.5 points, while Rogers finished second with 90.66.