By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Cabot girls’ indoor track team won the Arkansas State University High School Invitational last weekend. The meet consisted of just eight teams, but several traditionally strong programs, and the narrow point margin among the top three showed it. Cabot scored 70 points to edge out Lake Hamilton’s 68 and Bryant’s 67. Vilonia scored 21 and Heber Springs 13 to round out the top five.
Several Cabot school records went down during the meet, too, including two new records involving freshmen. Tristan Edgar took first place and set a school record in the 55-meter dash, recording a time of 7.71, barely beating out Bryant’s Jadyn Lewis’ 7.73. Edgar and fellow freshman Jenny Bond competed with seniors Lexi and Tori Weeks on the first-place and record-setting 4x400-meter relay team that finished in 4:01.90.
The Weeks twins also set school indoor records in the pole vault, each clearing 13-feet, 9-inches and tying for first place. They are also the highest indoor vaults in the state, but state records can only be set at state meets.
Tori Weeks also set the school record in the long jump, breaking Lauren Young’s old record of 16-11 by eight inches and winning the competition by 7.5 inches over Conway’s Connie Weatherly.
“We didn’t have the twins do too much,” said Cabot coach Leon White. “I don’t know if everyone else was at full strength, but we weren’t able to bring everybody. But I was very pleased with our freshmen that competed for us. We’re going to move them up, a lot of them, and have them compete for us on varsity outdoor this year. It’s a pretty talented group.”
Cabot freshman Casey Gore didn’t set a record, but she did win the mile with a time of 5:41.43, narrowly edging Conway’s Lauran Campbell by 1.4 seconds.
Junior Samantha Nickell hauled in eight points for Cabot with a second-place finish in the two-mile race, while Gore finished sixth in that event for three points.
Junior Katie Wright finished tied for fourth in the high jump by clearing 4-10, and finished third in the shot put with a toss of 29-3.
The state indoor track championships are this Saturday at the University of Arkansas.
