By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot swim teams made history on Thursday, winning the school’s first-ever district championships at the Veteran’s Park Community Center in Cabot. The Panther boys easily beat out second-place Jonesboro by more than 200 points, totaling 389 to the Hurricanes’ 177. Mountain Home was third with 144, Paragould had 132 and Lonoke finished fifth with 122 points. It was the Cabot boys’ fifth first-place finish in six meets this year.
The girls’ meet was a bit closer, but the Lady Panthers prevailed with a dominant 450 points. Jonesboro was also second in the girls’ meet with 346 while Mountain Home was third with 288. Greene County Tech and Searcy rounded out the top five. The Lady Panthers have also won five meets this year.
Haylee Beckley won the 200-yard individual medley by five seconds with a time of 2:25.88.
Caytee Wright and Katie Frederick took first and third in the 50-yard freestyle sprint. Wright also won the 100 freestyle while teammate Riley Young took third in that event.
The Lady Panthers didn’t win the 500-yard freestyle, but did sweep the next four spots. Beckley, Kristen Meyer, Allison Kindrex and Chelbi Dulin took second through fifth. Lonoke’s Colby Hartley was sixth in the event.
Melanie Abbot was third and Dulin fifth in the 100-yard butterfly.
Jessica Baldwin won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.21, and Young was fourth. Baldwin and Abbott then took second and third respectively in the 100 breaststroke.
The Lady Panthers also won all three relay races.
Noah Joyner won the boys’ 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.95.
The Panthers swept three of the top four spots in the 200-yard freestyle. Payton Jones won the event while Nick Cashel was third and Even Wilson fourth. Wilson was also second in the 500-yard freestyle. Jones also won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.66, while Chris Daniel was third and Seth Herrera fifth in that event.
Daniel also took second for the Panthers in the 100-yard freestyle while Herrera was fifth. Lonoke’s Tanner Edwards and Jimmy Evans took sixth and seventh while Zach Brown was eighth.
Jacob Bland took second in the 200-yard IM. Ben Cameron won the backstroke and took fourth in the butterfly.
Next stop for the Panthers is the state meet at UALR next Saturday.
