Lady Cats impress at Lake Hamilton
El Dorado girls’ track coach John Koonce changed the schedule so the Lady Wildcats could compete against a higher class of competition. The Lady Wildcats still flexed, winning the Lake Hamilton Sr. Invitational on Thursday over the likes of Bryant, Cabot, Little Rock Parkview and Lake Hamilton.
How impressive was their performance? They won their fourth meet of the year without the girls who also played soccer and only competed in one relay.
“We have an injury, too,” said Koonce. “We had to pull out of the 4x200 as well. I told the girls, we’re not full strength but we still have a chance. We couldn’t worry about the girls who were missing. We had to worry about what we had and take care of the business at hand. The girls did a very good job of doing that.”
Senior Carshaila Rozier was named the meet’s Outstanding Performer after winning the long jump (17-09.5) and triple jump (3609.5) and finishing second in the 100 and fourth in the 200.
“Carshaila Rozier had a monster day. Breyonna Steward set a personal record in the 100 meter hurdles. Emma McGee lowered her personal record in the (3,200) by 26 seconds and by 10 seconds in the 1,600,” Koonce said. “LaStasha Holmes qualified for state (discus). With her 113, that moved her up to No. 2 in our class. If she can get consistent there, that could be big.”
The only relay El Dorado entered was the 4x100. To score as many points as the Lady Wildcats without much coming from the relays could be a big deal.
“It’s exciting to know … I can’t say this for certain but I would bet there’s not many schools in the state that could do that,” said Koonce. “Especially when you’re talking about, not just having kids but not having quality kids that score points in multiple events.
“Next week will be the first time all season that we put a 4x400 team together that will be good enough to compete on the state level.”
Koonce also said the senior team could get a boost from the junior high. The newcomers could add 40 points at conference and 15 points at state, according to the coach.
Another reason for optimism is El Dorado will be hosting the conference meet on Tuesday, April 26, beginning at 11 a.m.
“As a coach, we're excited because it's good for the community. It shows the other people in our conference the support that's going to be there,” said Koonce. “I know there's going to a sea of purple and they're going to be loud. They're going to be proud. We're very excited about that.”
Speaking of conference, El Dorado altered its schedule and upped its level of competition for a reason. The Lady Wildcats hope to carry the regular season success into the conference and state meets.
“You can talk about how well we did (Thursday) all day long. But at the end of the day, we're going to have to stay focused and locked in to bring that effort to conference and at state,” Koonce said. “State's a long day and there's a bunch of good teams that could do just as well as us. The girls understand who they are is good enough so they don't have to be something they're not. They just have to stay locked in and be ready to roll.”