By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The National Guard Badger Relays were infested by Hornets on Thursday at Irwin Stadium in Beebe. The Beebe boys and girls finished second with each team scoring 62 points, but neither was close to Bryant, the only class 7A school in the event. The Lady Hornets won with 127.67 points while the Hornet boys won by 100 points.
The Jacksonville boys took seventh place with 35 points after what Red Devil coach Rick Russell called “a bad day”.
“We had two drops in relays and still finished seventh,” Russell said. “We’re usually strong in the relays and should’ve finished in at least the top five.”
Beebe sophomore Connor Patrom won the 400-meter race with a time of 50.94, beating Bryant’s Steven Murdock by .33 seconds. His teammate, senior John Diaz, won the 800m with a time of 2:04.00, beating Searcy’s Tucker Windley by .09. Abundant Life sophomore Daniel Carrell came out of nowhere in Heat 1 to finish seventh and score two points with a time of 2:11.32.
Beebe’s Race Payne won the shot put, coming just a half-inch short of 50 feet. North Pulaski’s David Jackson was second and Beebe’s Dusty Grier took fifth. Beebe also got 10 points in the discus, thanks to junior Jesse Crisco’s throw of 129-2.
Beebe took second in the 4x800m relay, third in the 4x400m and fourth in the 4x100. Beebe, who had lost to Jacksonville in the 4x100-meter relay last week at Heber Springs, beat the Red Devils at home. The Badgers’ team took fourth, one spot ahead of Jacksonville’s, Jaylon Tucker, Danial Curley, Tresean Lambert and Damon Thomas.
Jacksonville came back to finish seventh in the 4x400 despite an exchange error.
Curley tied Darian Jarrett of Bryant for first place in the high jump, with each competitor clearing 6 feet.
Sophomores from Jacksonville took third and fourth in the 100-meter dash. Jacksonville’s Jaylon Tucker was third, .25 seconds behind winner Justin Bullard of Mills with an 11.37 time. Jacksonville Lighthouse’s Jordan McNair was fourth with an 11.46. Tucker was also fifth in the 200m while teammate Curley, a senior, was eighth. John Winn of Bryant won that event.
Jacksonville’s Damon Thomas took fifth in the long jump with a 19-9.5 effort while Lambert was eighth, exactly five inches shorter.
Thomas was only eight inches short of second place, but Searcy’s Karonce Higgins won the event by a wide margin with a leap of 23 feet.
Lambert was also fourth in the triple jump at 41-0, just one-foot, nine inches short of first place Mar’Kevius Nelson of Bryant.
The distance races and hurdles were not strong suits for local teams. Beebe’s Kirk Allen scored two points in the 3,200m with a seventh-place finish, and William Peterson took eighth in the 110-meter hurdles.
In the girls’ event, only one local athlete placed in the 100-meter dash, but Jacksonville’s Antrice McCoy won it with a time of 12.85.
Madison Richey won the high jump by clearing 5-1. She also took second behind Bryant’s Jayla Anderson in the 300-meter hurdles, third in the long jump and scored one point in the 100-meter hurdles with an eighth-place finish.
Beebe’s Taylor McGraw took third in the 800-meter race and fifth in the 200m. Lady Badger senior Brenna Johnson was fifth in the mile and two-mile races.
The Beebe girls were strong in the relays, taking second in the 4x800, sixth in the 4x400 and third in the 4x100. The Lady Badgers took third in the 4x100-meter relays behind Bryant and Mills, while Jacksonville’s team finished seventh.
Though they were second in the 4x800, they were 23 seconds behind the dominant Lady Hornets.