Five Blackhawk runners attain all-state status

Five members of Coach Heather Wade’s Runnin’ Blackhawks earned 4A All-State status as a result of the competition last week at the Arkansas State High School Cross Country Championships in Hot Springs.

The boys had three runners claim the honor. Junior Grandon Grant and sophomores Tian Grant and Troy Ferguson were among the list of 20 AllState runners for 2021. On the girls side, seniors Kamree Dye and Liz Vasquez were also honored with that designation.

Grandon Grant finished the year with the fourth best 4A boys time overall (16:59), including all meets, with Tian Grant right behind in 5th (17:09). Ferguson has the 10th best time recorded in 2021 with a 17:22 clocking. Dye was ranked 13th among 4A girls for the year (20:51) with Vazquez right behind in 14th (20:55).

The local 4A-1 district flexed its muscle at the state meet, garnering nearly half the all-state awards though being just one of six 4A districts across the state.

Farmington matched the Pea Ridge boys honorees with three selections of their own. Junior Inertia Mugethi, senior Mason Ganz and senior Micah Grusing were All-State Cards. Gravette had a senior all-stater in Hayden Quintero, Berryville’s freshman Malachi Houghton was all-state as was Prairie Grove’s Zeke McDonald.

Gravette marched the Blackhawk girls with two selections to the All-State team with sophomore Julia Whorton, and junior Charlie Qualls called for the honor. Shiloh also had two all-staters in freshman Katie Ditch and junior Caroline Hill. Huntsville freshman Averie Dunn made the team as did Harrison’s

Camry Casey.

Though Harrison placed but one runner on the AllState squad, they claimed the state runner-up trophy. They did this by having all five of their runners come in within 73 seconds of each other. The top Goblin (Casey) was only 15th but their 5th runner was the 29th scorer. All five scorers for Harrison were seniors so 2022 will be a rebuilding year for them.

5a football playoffs begint his week

A normalized running of the 5A state playoffs begins this week. In 2020, every team in the state who wanted to participate in the playoffs was allowed to due to the covid response knocking some teams out of the competition before it even began. This year… back to normal.

Usually, only the top four of 5A conference races qualify for state play, which this season is conference champion Greenbrier, runner-up Vilonia, third place Farmington and fourth place finisher Harrison. 4A, 3A, and 2A playoffs include the top 5 teams from each district.

Something with which I find rather ludicrous is the AAA’s format of having one of the 5A conferences play off another conference’s qualifiers in the opening round. In 2021, the top two power conferences in the state are the 5A Central and the 5A West, and they are slated to play off each other in the first round.

With seven of the top ten teams in the state in those two conferences, there are, to my way of thinking, bad draws in the first round. For example, the state’s #4 team Vilonia and the 5A West runner-up, hosts the state’s #5 team in Little Rock Christian. That would be a good matchup in the quarterfinals, but not the first round.

The state’s top ranked team in Pulaski will host Harrison, the state’s #8 team. Pulaski won the 5A Central with Harrison taking

an uncharacteristic 4th place. #3 White Hall hosts the #10 Farmington boys in another top ten matchup, The 5A West champion #2 ranked Greenbrier will host #14 Maumelle, probably the only matchup that makes sense in the first round.

In other first round games with the other two 5A districts, #12 Valley View goes to #13 Magnolia, #18 Green County goes to #7 Camden, #14 Lakeside heads to #9 Wynne, with #6 Nettleton hosting #15 Hot Springs. Two of those games will advance to the final eight, teams not ranked in the top eight.

I would like to see the AAA utilize a ranking system to set the matchups. Keep the top four teams in each league in the playoffs, but rank them #1 through #16 and draw the pairings accordingly. At least in baseball and basketball post season competition, matching conferences with conferences works in that four teams in each level advance, allowing the best to come to the top.

Other football news, if you want to call it that, is that Bentonville won their 14th or 15th straight 7A West conference crown. They don’t always make it through the playoffs but they pretty much own the 7A West. On the 4A level, Shiloh pretty much demolished the 4A-1 again this season, and will likely do the same to the playoffs too, Due to that, the AAA will almost certainly be advancing them up into the 5A classification next year,, along with Prairie Grove. Half of the old 4A-1 will be half of the 5A West in 2022. Dardanelle is set to be in the 5A West with Vilonia, Greenbrier and Morrilton moving to other conferences. Vilonia is going 6A next season.

Basketball is here for the girls, boys next week

The 2021-22 girls varsity basketball season got underway (Saturday) night with the ladies taking on 6A Van Buren.

Coach Neal’s team lost heavily through graduation and is rebuilding around lone returning starter Lauren Wright. The hoop Hawks won a whale of a lot of games over the past three years, and this year’s edition will try and keep that tradition alive.

Beside Wright, three other seniors will be patrolling the pines this season with Paige Brown, Mikayla Humphrey and Allie King back in uniform.

The boys were in rebuilding mode last year and have three senior seasoned athletes to lead the way this season. Sharp shooter Jared Brewer, quick guard Will Anderson, and speedy forward Joe Adams will be giving the Pea Ridge faithful something to cheer about this winter.

The boys begin their competition by playing Subiaco on Tuesday, Nov. 16 and following that up with a game with Eureka Springs a week from Friday, Nov. 19.

It appears the covid restrictions that cancelled all the tournaments during the last school year are finally in the rear view mirror, which means that there will be a Battle at the Ridge again this December. I have not seen the field as of this writing, but there are always some interesting teams that Coach Loyd’s brings to town. This will be the first year the tourney will be played in the new complex.

FINAL 5A WEST FOOTBALL STANDINGS

Greenbrier 7-0 Vilonia 6-1 Farmington 5-2 Harrison 4-3 Alma 2-5 Morrilton 2-5 Pea Ridge 1-6 Clarksville 1-6