By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
The Cabot boys’ and girls’ swim teams each finished first at the Paragould High School Invitational on Monday at the Paragould Community Center.
The Panthers took first out of eight teams, and totaled 460 team points. Jonesboro finished a distant second with 187 points. The Lady Panthers won the girls’ nine-team meet with 518 points. Mountain Home was second in the girls’ division, finishing with 339 points.
In the boys’ division, the Panthers won three different relay events. Cabot won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:52.41, the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:51.17, and the 400-yard freestyle relay with a top time of 3:51.46.
Payton Jones was the lone Panther to win multiple events. He finished first in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:09.51, and won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 0:59.66.
Noah Joyner was the only other Panther to win an individual event Monday. He took first place in the 50-yard freestyle race, finishing with a time of 0:24.53.
The Cabot girls won two different relay events Monday. The Lady Panthers won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:01.83, and finished first in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a top time of 4:11.10.
The Lady Panthers had two different swimmers win multiple individual events. Haylee Beckley won the 200-yard freestyle race with a time of 2:07.34, narrowly beating teammate Caytee Wright, who finished in 2:07.86.
Beckley dominated the grueling 500-yard freestyle race. She won with a time of 5:35.49. Megan Beaver of Mountain Home came in second in that event with a time of 8:33.31.
Cabot’s Jessie Baldwin won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:03.87. Teammate Riley Young finished second in that event with a time of 1:06.85. Baldwin earned her second winning event in the 200-yard IM, finishing with a top time of 2:21.10.
Young did win the 100-yard breaststroke event. Her top time of 1:20.99 beat Brookland’s Mckenzie Epperson’s second-place time of 1:22.15.
Lady Panther swimmer Katie Frederick came close to winning the 50-yard freestyle race. She finished that event with a time of 0:27.82, just barely behind Mary Kline of Jonesboro, who won with a time of 0:27.25.
Cabot will host its next swim meet at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Veteran’s Park Community Center. Lonoke will also compete in that meet.
LONOKE STAR
Lonoke and Carlisle each competed in the Little Rock Central Invitational at UALR last Saturday.
Central won the boys’ meet with 315 team points. Russellville took second with 172 points. Lonoke finished third with 90 points and Arkansas Baptist finished fourth out of the six teams that competed in the boys’ division, finishing with 47 points.
In the girls’ division, Mount St. Mary finished first with 307 points. Central took second place with 250 points. Lonoke was fourth out of the seven teams competing in the girls’ division, finishing with 55 points. Carlisle was seventh with 29 team points.
Lonoke’s Kayla McGee was the local star of that meet. She finished with the top times in two different individual events. McGee won the girls’ 50-yard freestyle with a time of 0:25.88, and took first in the 100-yard backstroke with a top time of 1:09.03.
