McMillon logs 4 miles at Oil Belt
El Dorado junior Zachary McMillon, who earned All-State in cross country during the fall, showed out on the track Thursday when he earned the High Point Award at the Oil Belt Relays at Memorial Stadium. McMillon pulled off a difficult triple by winning the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. He also ran the first leg of the first place 4x800 relay, piling up more than 32 points for the winning Wildcats.
“First of all, Zach came up to me and said, ‘Coach, let me do all four events.’ I was like, ‘Well, that sounds crazy but if you want to do it, you can do it.’ And, he went out and did it. He won all of them,” said El Dorado coach DeAnthony Curtis.
“That kid is just a runner. He loves running and you don’t find that.”
McMillon ran 11:15.98 to win the 3,200 by more than 38 seconds over the second place runner. He ran a 4:59.11 in the 1,600 and 2:08.53 in the 800.
“I wanted to do four events (Thursday) because of the challenge and to help the team win,” said McMillon, who said the feat still wasn’t as difficult as a cross country race. “Personally I think a cross country race is harder because in track you have a break and also it’s on a flat surface but in cross country you have to deal with all types of conditions. Yes the times weren’t the best but the whole goal was to help the team win.”
El Dorado’s boys and girls both won their respective divisions in the meet, which was held in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
“We really appreciate the entire town of El Dorado coming out to support,” said El Dorado girls’ coach John Koonce. “It was a day where the weather looked like it could be iffy. People could’ve used that for an excuse but we had a really good home crowd supporting us. They were very loud. We appreciate all the people who sponsored this meet.”
Sponsors for the Oil Belt week included: Marla Hill, John Hill, Brian & Monica Nash, Sims Mortuary, Torrance Dunn, El Dorado Animal Hospital, The Spudnut Shoppe, Trisha Nash, April Curley, James Anderson Foundation, Douglas Spencer, CPA, Tiffany Meadows and College Avenue Church of Christ. • • •
Strong traveled to compete in the Crossett Track
Meet on Thursday. Kaiden McHenry-Jones won the 110 hurdles and was second in the 100.
McHenry-Jones, the reigning 1A champion in the 110 hurdles, posted a time of 15.28 in the event, which would've placed first at the Oil Belt relays as well.
“He looked really good, won the hurdles race by a good gap competing against bigger schools,” said Strong coach Alex Howell. “I'm expecting him to place for state and do really good this year.”
Strong's Decoria Clemons was sixth in the 200. Junction City's Dominique Grimes was fifth in the triple jump. The Dragons' Remarkeas Singleton placed seventh in the discus and eighth in the shot.
Crossett won the boys' title with 140 points over Greenville (123) and Beekman Charter (110.50). The Bulldogs scored 33 to finish eighth out of 13 teams.
In girls, Strong's Kennedi Dixon was fourth in the long jump. Anaiya Ingram was seventh in the 100 hurdles and Breanna Hunt was eighth in the 100 hurdles.