GC distance runner, vaulter stand out at MOC

RUSSELLVILLE — Garland County’s only Meet of Champs winner last year had company on the ribbon stand Wednesday.

Jessieville’s Juliah Rodgers repeated in the girls 1600, also taking the 800. Lake Hamilton’s Olvia Pielemeier breezed in the girls 3200 while Lakeside’s Joseph Bariola (boys 1600) and Lake Hamilton’s Sutton Manatt (15-7) also scored individual victories in the one-day meet at Russellville High School.

Rodgers, a junior, bettered her winning 1600 time of last year in 5:13.26 with Valley View’s Elise Knight second in 5:21.44 and Lake Hamilton’s Audrey Herrell fifth in 5:35.03. Rodgers, in 2:18.33, won a closer race in the 800 with Bentonville’s Sophia Hinklebein second in 2:18.74.

Pielemeier, a junior, swept three events at Friday’s Class 5A meet in Van Buren, the 800 in 2:20.74, the 1600 in 5:11.43 and the 3200 in 11:18.86. Rodgers won the 800 in 2:30.44 and the 1600 in 5:23.41 at the Class 3A meet May 3 in Lincoln.

Bariola, a junior, clocked in 4:21.54, elevated his second-place finish in the 3A boys 1600 with Lake Hamilton’s Zeke McCain third and Jessieville’s Hunter Pye, the 3A champion, fourth.

Manatt extended Lake Hamilton’s dominance in the school’s signature track event clearing 15 feet, 7 inches, more than 2 feet higher than his sixth-place total of last year. Ex-Wolf Haze Farmer set the MOC and Class 6A standards as a senior in 2019, also becoming the school’s first two-time decathlon winner. Former Wolf state champion Morry Sanders is recognized as the guru of the Arkansas pole vault for training state or national champions at Lake Hamilton and his Arkansas Vault Club in Montgomery County.

The school year’s final Arkansas Activities Association-sponsored events are the Decathlon and Heptathlon Tuesday and Wednesday in Fayetteville.