Tough day for Forrest City track teams at 4A state meet

Winning the 4A-5 Conference track meet last week was more like a walk in the park for the Forrest City Mustangs and Lady Mustangs.

Paced by 41 top 10 finishes, 12 of those first-place events, the Mustangs put up 234 points to win the boys side of the six-team conference meet, 111 points better than second place Little Rock Mills in the six team, 16 event meet.

The Lady Mustangs powered their way to the 4A-5 girls conference track title last week by putting up 166 points, 19 points better than second place Robinson. Stuttgart finished third and Little Rock Mills held on for fourth.

Tuesday was much tougher and finding their way through the Class 4A state meet held Tuesday at Harrison was a different matter entirely.

In the field of 32 Class 4A schools, the Mustangs were held to their third lowest score of the track season, 42 points through 14 of the 18 scheduled events.

Pea Ridge won the 4A state title with 105 points followed by Magnolia, DeQueen and the Mustangs in fourth place.

Forrest City's lowest point total of the track season was 28 points at the Sara Low Relays followed by 31 points at the Sylvan Hills Boosters Club Meet.

Then came the 42 points Tuesday at Harrison.

The Mustangs top scores of the season was 234 to win the 4A-5 conference championship last week. The Mustangs put up 154 points at Helena-West Helena, 121 at their own Mustang Meet and 138.

At the state meet on Tuesday, the Mustangs registered 10, top 10 finishes with Deonte Lay scoring 18 of the team's 42 points. Lay, the high point athlete at the conference meet, ran fifth in the 100-meter dash, second in the 200-meter dash and fifth in the 400-meter dash. In the 100-meter prelims Lay finished third and Cameron Tiswell ran 10th.

Lay was third in the 200-meter prelims with Kyman Lee and Chanellor Taylor running eighth and ninth in the prelims.

Justin Edwards ran 13th in the 800-meter run followed by Corbin Hester finishing in the 18th spot. Edwards also ran to a 13th place finish in the mile run.

Lee finished eighth in the 110meter hurdles after finishing sixth in the prelim race.

The Mustangs ran fifth in the 800-meter relay, 14th overall in the two mile relay and fourth in the mile relay, but did not participate in the 400-meter relay.

In the field events, Lay also gave the Mustangs a 10th place finish in the long jump with an effort of more than 19 feet while teammate Daniel Rolfe was sixth in the event, leaping more than 20 feet.

Lee finished 12th in the high jump clearing the bar at 5'10", while Subiaco Academy won the event with a leap of more than six feet.

Lee gave the Mustangs their lone first place finish, leaping 42 feet, nine inches to win the triple jump. Taylor held on to finish eighth in the event with a leap of more than 40 feet.

Willie Fowler gave the Mustangs an 11th place finish in the shot put with a toss of more than 40 feet.

The Mustangs did not compete in the two-mile run, the 300-meter hurdles, the 400-meter relay or the discus.

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On the girls side of the state meet, Valley View took home the 4A state title with Magnolia finishing second.

Forrest City finished in a tie for 23rd place out of 31 participating girls teams with Huntsville, both teams scoring just six points.

Kerrigan Smith accounted for three of the six points, with the final three points coming in the relays.

In the sprints, Smith finished sixth. Charnelle Hoof ran 15th in the 800-meter distance event and finished 11th in the mile run.

Taylor Cole and Kamara Taggart finished 12th and 15th respectively in the 100-meter hurdle prelims, but did not make the finals cut.

Cole returned to finish 15th in the 300-meter hurdles event.

In the relays, Forrest City finished sixth in the 800, 17th in the mile and 15th in the two-mile event.

Smith cleared the high jump bar at four feet, eight inches to place 10th in the event, while ShaMya Futrell was 15th in the shot put.

The Lady Mustangs did not participate in the 100 or 400-meter sprint races or the two mile run and did not run the 100-meter hurdles. The Lady Mustangs did not field a team to run the 400meter relay race and did not compete in the long jump, triple jump or discus in the field events.

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With the threat of inclement weather expected, the Class 6A high school state track meet scheduled for Thursday at Little Rock Central, has been postponed until Friday, May 6.