Elliott brothers take 1st and 2nd
The Pea Ridge boys and girls track and field teams walked off with the top awards as they defended their 2018 titles as the champions of the 4A-1 District.
Coach Heather Wade’s girls won their fifth league crown of the past six years with a dominant 90-point win over the league runner-up. The Lady Blackhawks scored 199 to easily best the runner-up Farmington Eagles who finished with 90. Gravette was third with 85. Fourth-place Harrison scored 78; fifth Shiloh, 61; sixth Prairie Grove, 40; seventh Huntsville, 40; eighth Gentry, 23; and ninth Berryville, 13.
On the boys’ side, head coach Asa Poteete held out some of his big point producers to get more athletes qualified for the state meet as did the girls team. For most of the meet, Farmington led the boys’ scoring column until boys’ pole vault results were figured into the totals. The ’Hawks finished second (Zach Woods), third (Lance Nunley), fourth (Drake Wolfenden) and seventh (Caleb Neil) to score 21 points to vault the host team to a 115-109 advantage with the 200-meter dash next to figure into the scoring.
The 200-meter dash ended the suspense with the ’Hawks going first (Connor Escajeda), second (Cooper Elliott), third (Patrick Elliott) and eighth (Adam Trammel) to push the ’Hawks out in front by 20 at 140-120 with two events left. The ’Hawks outscored the Cardinals in both events to provide the final 156-130 total for victory. Gentry took third with 106, with fourth Harrison, 91; fifth Gravette, 90; sixth Huntsville, 45; seventh Shiloh, 26; eighth Prairie Grove, 9; and eighth Berryville, 9.
Cassidy Mooneyhan led the Pea Ridge girls with 31 points. She retained her three-year grip on the
conference pole vault title, took second in the 100-meter (13.10) and 200-meter (27.76) while running legs on the victorious 4x100meter and 4x400-meter relays. Joining her on the district champ 4x100-meter (52.88) relay were Shelby Dunlap, Jamison Toms and Claire Hale. Madison Smith, Blakelee Winn and Olivia McCracken were Mooneyhan’s running mates in the 4x400-meter (4:20.32).
The boys were led in scoring by senior Cooper Elliott with 27 markers, coming from second-place finishes in the 100-meter (11.34) and 200-meter (23.86) while also taking third in the 400-meter (53.16). Elliott was also a part of the ’Hawk boys’ two winning relay teams. He ran with Trammel, Escajeda and Patrick Elliott to record a fast 43.80 clocking to rank among the top eight teams in the state. Elliott was also a part of the champion 4x400-meter relay (3:34.70) along with Escajeda, Shaed Cates and Trammel.
Shelby Dunlap was another individual district champion, winning the 100-meter hurdles (17.24) and was also sixth in the 400-meter (1:05.82), third in the triple jump (34’6”); and fourth in the discus (83’10”) along with her two wins in the relays. Meredith Mitchell was the only other individual champion as she took top honors in the discus (94’7”).
Others scoring individually were: Harmony Reynolds, third 1,600-meter (5:50.15); Claire Hale, third 100-meter hurdles (17.73), sixth 100-meter (13.42), and fifth 300-meter hurdles (54.02); Jamison Toms, seventh 100-meter (13.55), third 200-meter (28.32), sixth 400-meter (1:05.82), fourth long jump (16’0”), third triple jump (34’6”), and seventh shot put (27’8”); Mikayla Humphrey, third 300-meter hurdles (18.54), eighth 100-meter hurdles (18.54), and eighth triple jump (29’2”); Kynley Burton, second high jump (5’1”); Madison Smith, seventh long jump (15’1”), seventh triple jump (30’5”); Liz Vazquez, sixth 3,200-meter (14:27.97) and eighth 1,600-meter (6:25.80); Allie King, sixth pole vault (8’0”), and seventh 3,200-meter (14:35.75); Dallice White, eighth 800-meter (2:47.72); Olivia McCracken, fourth 300-meter hurdles (53.96); and McKinzie Klingman, third discus (86’3”).
The girls were also fourth in the 4x800-meter relay with a quintet of Reynolds, Wright, White and Smith running a 11:15 clocking.
Freshman Patrick Elliott pulled the upset in the 100-meter, racing out to a gold medal in 11:20, just ahead of brother Cooper Elliott who was second in 11.34. Elliott was also third in the 200-meter (23.89). Connor Escajeda and Justin Koon were the other individual champions with Escajeda taking the 200-meter (22.67) with Koon taking the 300-meter hurdles (42.78).
The 4x800-meter relay completed the relay sweep for the ’Hawks with an 8:51.45 clocking. Team members were Josiah Small, Kevin Vazquez, Sander Van der Veen and Shaed Cates.
Other individual scorers for the boys was: Levi Schultz, sixth 1,600-meter (1:16); Adam Trammel, eighth 200-meter (24.35); Sander Van der Veen, fourth 800-meter (2:11.26); Kevin Vasquez, fifth 800-meter (2:13.21); Josiah Small, fourth 400-meter (53.82); Layton Powell, seventh 3,200-meter (12:22.53); Colbey Norman, eighth 100-meter hurdles (18.14); Zach Woods, second pole vault (13’6”); Lancy Nunley, third pole vault (11’6”); Drake Wolfenden, fourth pole vault (11’0”); Caleb Neil, seventh pole vault (10’6”); Logan Spears, fourth discus (120’8”); Mike Erickson, seventh shot put (38’5”); Will Feemster, fourth high jump (5’10”); Grayden Edwards, sixth high jump (5’6”); and Tate Busey, sixth high jump (5’6”).
The top three places in each event qualified for the state 4A championships at Batesville High School which was scheduled for Tuesday, April 30. The Blackhawks qualified the second most athletes for the state finals with Magnolia leading the way in that regard.
Preliminaries were slated for Tuesday morning with the finals set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Lady ’Hawks are the defending state champions and were favored to win again.