Former Blackhawk Blakelee Winn named All-American
Pea Ridge’s own Blakelee Winn earned NCAA All-American with her third place finish in the NCAA Division II National Indoor Track and Field Championships held last week in Pittsburg, Kan.
Competing for the host school, Pittsburg State University, Winn earned her status with a third-place finish in the Women’s Pentathlon. The pentathlon is a five-event combined competition with the athletes vying in the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800-meter run.
To get into any national event, athletes must rank in the Top 16 of the event in which they wish to compete. Times and results of all meets throughout the season involving NCAA teams are kept in a database at the NCAA headquarters in Indiana. Winn had a fifth ranking at the end of the regular season, earning her a place in the big show.
The meet began with the 60-meter hurdles with Winn placing fifth in 8.77, earning her 959 points. Winn’s next event was the high jump where she finished ninth with a jump of 5-2 to earn 712 points for a combined score of 1,471, dropping her back to sixth place overall.
Winn came up big in the shot put, taking third place and throwing for 39 feet 2 inches for 657 points. She moved up an overall spot to fifth place (2,128) with the showing. In the last field event of the competition, the long jump, Winn again came up big as she captured third by jumping 19 feet to score an additional 789 points. The effort moved her up into third place overall with 3,417.
The final event was the 800-meter with the first two athletes firmly ahead in the competition with a battle looming for the third place award. Winn finished eighth in the 800-meter in
2:25.05, just enough to hold off the three athletes right behind her in the standings.
Cheyenne Williamson of Saginaw Valley was the overall winner with 4,292 points. Second was Trace Mosby of Pittsburg State with 4,098, followed by Winn in third with 3,873. Fourth was Summer Grubbs of Texas-Tyler with 3,775. Fifth was Mattie Ross of Fort Hays State with
3,766 followed by sixth place finisher Mica Jenrette with 3,706. Central Missouri’s Hannah Vanbuskirk was seventh with 3,705 and Emma Schafer was eighth with 3,688 points. Winn was the top freshman to compete this season.
As far as this writer knows, Winn is the first female athlete to have earned NCAA All-American status from Pea Ridge. She will have little time to savor the moment as the Lady Gorillas will be heading for the track and begin the 2022 Outdoor Season. The outdoor season will include the heptathlon, a sevenevent endurance competition.
The Heptathlon includes the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meters, long jump, javelin and 800-meter run.
Winn was the 2021 Arkansas Overall High School Heptathlon Champion under the tutelage of long time Blackhawk head coach Heather Wade.
4a basketball concludes; some surprising results
The 4A-1 had the toughest girls conference in the state this year, as well as the recent past. Farmington’s girls were far and away the heavy favorites to take the state crown after finished second in 2020. It didn’t happen as the Nashville Scrappers drilled a 3-point bomb from deep with 6 seconds left to edge the Cardinals 42-41 in the championship final in Hot Springs.
The Farmington boys were odds on favorites to take the boys’ championship this year with perhaps their best all-time team but they couldn’t survive the semifinals. Eventual champion Blytheville took them down in the semis.
Prairie Grove’s girls were the Cinderella team of 2022, as they ended the season with only three conference victories. They fought their way all the way to the state semifinals before losing again to an arch nemesis.
The Razorbacks are going dancing
The University of Arkansas men’s Razorbacks captured a No. 4 seed as they were selected to play in the Big Dance in the West Regional.
The fourth-seeded 25-8 Razorbacks are taking on the 28-5 Vermont Catamounts in first round action. If the Hogs get past the Cats, they will play the winner of No. 5 ranked
Connecticut vs. the New Mexico Lobos.
If the Razorbacks get past the first two opponents, they will play the survivor of the other subregion. Teams in that part of the schedule include No. 1 Gonzaga Zags (26-3), with Boise State (27-7), Memphis (27-7), and Georgia State 18-10) in the mix.
The other half of the West Region includes: Alabama (19-13); Notre Dame (22-16), Texas Tech (25-9), Montana State 277), Michigan State (22-12), Davidson (27-5) and Duke (28-6).
Editor’s note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@nwadg.com.