By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot girls’ track team broke four school records two weeks ago at Arkansas State University’s Invitational, but it was state records that went down Saturday at the state indoor meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas.
The Lady Panthers weren’t close to full strength, but still managed a second-place finish behind Bentonville, and broke two state records in the process.
Lexi and Tori Weeks each broke the state record in the pole vault, going 13-feet, 6-inches to shatter the old record of 13-1.5. They each took three shots at the national record of 14-2.75, going for 14-3.25, but neither successfully cleared the height.
They both have a personal best of 14-0.5, but heights must be cleared in state meets to count as state records, and everything between the new state record and the national record was bypassed.
“The more you run down the runway the more tired you get,” said Cabot track coach Leon White. “That’s why they went up nine inches all at once, just give it their best shot while they can.”
While tying for first place in the pole vault, the twins also finished first and second in the long jump. Tori won the event with a leap of 17-4.25, while Lexi was second at 16-10.75, 9.5 inches further than third place.
It was a great leaping day for Tori Weeks, who also finished second in the triple jump, shattering the Cabot school record. Tori first broke the old school record of 35-6 by leaping 35-7 on her next-to-last jump. Then on her last jump, she obliterated that record by bounding 36-10 and moving into first place, but Bentonville’s McKenzie Dixon broke the state record on her last jump, going 37-3.5 to win the event.
Cabot’s 4x400-meter relay team also broke the state record by more than two seconds, finishing in 4:03.15. That also was not the team’s fastest time. They finished below 4:02 at ASU. Lexi and Tori Weeks, along with freshmen Tristyn Edgar and Jennifer Bond teamed up for the state record run.
Edgar also took fifth for four points in the 200-meter dash and finished eighth to earn a point in the 55-meter sprint race.
Despite setting a state record in the 4x400, Cabot entered no one in the 400-meter race.
“Well really Tristyn is more of a sprinter,” White said. “We’d normally have Danielle McWilliams running that relay. She can run a 59 or 60 but she’s in basketball right now. And the twins are both nursing little injuries so we didn’t enter them in everything they usually do for us. One of them has a quad and the other a ham, so we’re taking it light.”
Three freshmen and a junior did well in the 4x800-meter relay. Ashley and Casey Gore teamed up with Edgar and Bailey Lebow for a fourth-place finish in that race.
Katie Wright garnered a final point for Cabot with an eighth-place finish in the shot put, tossing it 30-9.25.
