P-W boys third, girls fifth at conference track meet
Palestine-Wheatley head track coach Ryan Halbert and his Patriot team will be headed to the Class 3A state meet after qualifying for three events Thursday at the 3A-6 conference meet held at Helena-West Helena.
Thursday's finish continues a successful track season for the PW boys.
While Halbert's Patriots recorded only one first place finish Thursday, winning the twomile relay, they did put up 24 top 10 finishes to take third overall at the meet behind first place Helena-West Helena and runnerup DeWitt.
The Patriots qualified for state in the 400 meter and 800-meter distance races. P-W's Aiden Harlin ran second in the 400meter while Kyle Wright finished second in the 800-meter.
In the field events Thursday, Jalen French finished fifth in the shot put with a toss of more than 37 feet while teammate Jonathan Tipler finished seventh. Helena-West Helena's Mahki Armstrong continued his season-long dominance in the event winning the shot with a throw of more than 46 feet.
French and Tipler finished third and eighth in the discus behind Helena-West Helena's Jeff Redmon who took first with a throw of 112 feet.
P-W's Camron Medley took fourth in the triple jump with Eli Cook finishing sixth. DeWitt took first and second while Helena-West Helena finished third. Medley finished third in the long jump.
P-W's PCaylin Carter finished fifth in the high jump with DeWitt taking first and Helena-West Helena finishing second, sixth and seventh.
Brothers Jacob and Austin Weddington finished third and sixth respectively in the pole vault. Jacob cleared the bar at 8 feet. Dalton Vick missed the event with a broken hand.
"If we had Dalton, we probably could have picked up another 25 points," Halbert said. "Even so, we could not have overtaken Helena-West Helena, but we could have finished second."
Helena-West Helena finished the meet with 181 points while DeWitt tallied 118 and the Patriots, just 10 points behind the Dragons, finished third with 108.
The Patriots won the two-mile relay in a time of 8:57.69 with CAC running second and Helena-West Helena taking third.
P-W ran third in the 800-meter and mile relay and fourth in the 400-meter relay.
In the sprints, Medley ran fourth in the 100 and 200-meter races, while Harlin took second in the 400-meter dash.
In the distance events, Melt Van Der Spuy took ninth in the mile run with Cook taking 10th, Episcopal Collegiate won the event while CAC finished second and third. Wright ran second in the 800-meter run. The Patriots did not compete in the two-mile run event.
Jacob Weddington finished seventh in the 110-meter hurdles with Elijah Goodall taking eighth. Austin Weddington ran fourth in the 300-meter hurdles
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On the girls side of Thursday's conference meet, Palestine-Wheatley finished fifth overall with just four girls and competing in just nine of the 18 events.
Brandi Nelson finished third in the shot put and fifth in the discus to start the field events.
In the long jump event, Jillian Mallard finished eighth while Sara Beth Gaines recorded a 10th place finish. Mallard ran fourth in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdle events, while Gaines took seventh in the 400-meter dash and ninth in the 200-meter sprint.
Billee Young ran third in the two-mile distance race.
DeWitt, behind eight, first place finishes, won the overall girls title with CAC finishing second and Episcopal Collegiate third.