By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Lady Panthers scored a top-five finish at the 7A state track meet in Rogers on Thursday, while the Beebe Badgers did the same in the 5A boys state meet in Hot Springs. The Lady Panthers finished in the points in six events, racking up 59 total points for a comfortable margin over sixth-place finisher Fort Smith Southside with 36 points.
The Panther boys track team also had a string of good performances, but not enough entrants as they finished up 12th overall with 14 points.
Bentonville took the overall title with 259 total points, with 168 of those points courtesy of a dominating Lady Tiger team that left runner up Fayetteville in the dust with 105 points.
But the Purple Dogs won the boys side. Fayetteville scored a total of 219 points, good enough for second overall. The Lady Panthers were the highest-finishing 7A Central Conference team in the meet with Little Rock Central seventh.
Seniors Sabrina Antimo and Emkay Myers led the way with a string of second-place performances for Cabot. Antimo finished second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.87, just over two-tenths off Fayettville’s Sydney Conley. Antimo also reached a height of 5-3 to finish second in the high-jump event.
The showdown in the long-distance races was between Rogers junior Maggie Montoya and Cabot’s Emily “Emkay” Myers. Montoya won the 1,600-meter run with a fair margin of 5:06.32 to a 5:11.99 for second-place Myers, but the University of Nevada signee gave Montoya a fight to the finish in the grueling 3,200-meter run. Montoya pulled out her third win of the meet with an 11:16.44 with Myers close behind at 11:18.91.
Myers teamed with Marlene Sheehan, Meagan Duncan and Allison Sinning in the 4x800 relay and brought home another runner-up finish with a 10:04.73.
Senior Julia Gairhan also finished second in her best event, the pole vault. Gairhan reached a height of 9-06 to tie with Fayettville’s Sara Calhoun.
In boys events, senior Caleb DeLaPaz finished eighth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:03.76. Scott Foltz took fifth place in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:34.59. Foltz also finished 10th in the 3,200 event.
DeLaPaz, Foltz, Alex Simpson and Forrest Lair teamed up for a second-place finish in the 4x800 relay event by running an 8:10.55. And in field events, Jesse King finished up eighth overall in the pole vault, reaching a height of 11-06.
The Beebe 4x800 relay teams scored strong finishes on both the boys and girls sides.
In fact, the Badger relay team of Jake Schlenker, John Diaz, Hunter Plante and Alex Smith bested the field to win the boys 4x800 with a time of 8:09, a good six seconds ahead of second-place Vilonia and good enough to break the school record.
Senior leaper Dayton Scott easily won the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 7 inches.
The relay team and Scott will compete in the 2012 Meet of Champions at Lake Hamilton on Saturday.
“A top 5 finish in the state is a significant accomplishment for this team, especially if you look at where we were just two years ago,” Beebe track coach Mark Pinkerton said. “I feel like our track program is headed in the right direction with the opportunity in the future to continue to finish in the top 5 and higher.
The Lady Badgers team of Stormy Taylor, Rachel Treece, Cecily Brock and Katie McGraw took seventh in the girls 4x800 relay with a time of 11:03.
