By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot Lady Panthers won the Vilonia Eagle Invitational track meet on Thursday. Their score of 83 narrowly edged out conference mate North Little Rock by nine points. Nettleton was a distant third with 59 points while Jonesboro, 48, and Conway, 45, rounded out the top five.
North Little Rock also finished second in the boys’ meet, scoring 87 points and also finishing nine points behind the host school Vilonia. Heber Springs, 72, Conway, 64, and Little Rock Christian Academy, 46, rounded out the top five. The Cabot boys finished seventh with 31 points while Beebe scored 20 and Sylvan Hills and North Pulaski scoring six points each.
The Cabot girls have the potential to score in every area, and are emerging as the favorite to repeat as conference champions this year.
“Our girls are pretty strong and we’ve set one of our goals to winning conference,” Cabot assistant coach Chris Beavert said. “Anything can happen so we need to be at our best. For state, right now on paper it looks like Bryant is going to be hard to beat, but we’re going in trying to win it. You never can tell what will happen.”
Cabot junior Micah Huckabee won the 800-meter run with a personal best time of 2:26.67, almost a full five seconds ahead of second-place Tory Sanders of Searcy. Huckabee was second in the 1600 and teammate Marlene Sheehan picked up a point by finishing eighth. Her better event was the 3200, in which she took fourth place, while teammate Megan Duncan was eighth and North Little Rock’s Irenia Ball was fifth.
Cabot sophomores Tori and Lexi Weeks swept the top two spots in the pole vault. Tori cleared 11 feet, six inches while Lexi went 10-6. Lexi Weeks was also fifth in the long jump. Thursday’s vaults don’t approach what either is capable of. Tori has cleared 12-6 this and Lexi 12-5 this season.
“They’ve got the top two spots in the state right now and they’re even nationally ranked with their heights,” Cabot head coach Leon White said.
North Little Rock’s Malika Monk won the long jump with a leap of 17-7. Beebe’s Madison Richey was second at 16-11. Monk also won the triple jump and took second in the high jump and fourth in 100-meter dash.
Richey took third in the triple jump and was fourth in the high jump. Also scoring in the triple jump was North Little Rock’s Lagradia Nelson, who finished fourth, and Cabot’s Rochelle Mallory finished sixth.
Monk’s teammate Lagradia Nelson took second in 200-meter dash, finishing .43 seconds behind Forrest City’s Nikirah McKinney’s winning time of 26.37. Lexi Weeks was third and Cabot’s Ladaysha Evans fifth.
Lady Wildcat Shadeanna Gatlin won the grueling 300-meter hurdles with a time of 52.20. She just beat out Mallory, who finished in 52.57. Beebe’s Jamie Jackson was fifth at 53.49. Gatlin also took second in the 100-meter hurdles behind CAC’s Logan Talbert.
Cabot’s Haley Buford finished second in the discus and fourth in the shot put. North Little Rock’s Tashika Harris was fifth in the shot.
North Little Rock’s Brandi Hughes, Makayla Daniel, Ashleigh Taylor and Nelson won the 4x100-meter relay while the Cabot team took fifth and Beebe seventh.
Cabot won the 4x400 relay with the combination of Huckabee, Evans and the Weeks sisters. North Little Rock was third and Beebe sixth in that event. Beebe beat out the local competition in the 4x800, with the team of Cecily Brock, Katie and Taylor McGraw and Rachel Treece finishing third behind LRCA and Conway.
The Cabot boys are stronger than usual in sprints this year, and put both of its entries in the top six on Thursday. Jordan Burke took second place while Alley Layton placed for the first time this year in sixth. Layton’s time of 11.67 was a personal best and makes him the fifth Cabot sprinter to earn points this season.
“He’s our alternate for the relay team, but he’s worked really hard and gotten better,” Beavert said. “With him coming on like he has, we feel comfortable with any of the five guys on that relay team. We think they have a chance to break a school record.”
The CHS record of 43.5 in the 4x100 relay was set in 1984. This team, consisting of Burke, Seth Hoggard, Zach Launius and Chris Henry, ran a 43.9 at Vilonia, which was good for second place behind North Little Rock’s Kavin Alexander, Martinez Butler, Rodney Bryson and Altee Tenpenny. Their winning time was 43.4.
The top eight in the 100-meter dash was loaded with local coverage area runners. North Little Rock’s Altee Tenpenny was fourth and Fabian Lewis was eighth. Sylvan Hills’ Quincey Flowers was fifth and Keyundra Hardimon was seventh. Conway’s Brandon Cox won the event with a time of 10.98 and Forrest City’s John Williams was third.
Alexander won the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.61.
