By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Beebe boys’ track team took second place in the 11-team meet at Morrilton last Friday. The Badgers scored 147 points, finishing far behind track power Vilonia’s 268, but well ahead the 53 points put up by Dardanelle and Greenbrier for third place. The host Devil Dogs took fifth with 40 points.
The Badgers won just one event. Senior Jesse Crisco took first place in the discus with a toss of 127-feet, 3-inches. Dusty Grier took fourth and Wade Jones seventh in that event.
Beebe junior Connor Patrom tied for first with Dardanelle’s Chris Kershner in the 100-meter dash, each finishing in 11.81. Patrom’s teammate and classmate Keishaun Davidson finished third with an 11.90.
Justin Burlison and Nathan Clifton took fourth and fifth in the 200m for Beebe while John Paul Savage and Gus McCoy took third and fifth respectively in the 800m. Savage also took fourth in the mile while teammate Rob Swafford finished seventh. McCoy finished fourth in the two mile. Vilonia runners took the top three spots in both distance races.
Patrom and Davidson were back in the points in the 110-meter high hurdles, taking sixth and seventh place. Micah Dubose picked up a point for Beebe in the 300m hurdles with an eighth-place finish.
The Badgers’ 4x100 relay team of Jo’Vaughn Wyrick, Clayton Meurer, Trip Smith and Burlison finished second behind Greenbrier. The Badgers replaced Smith with Dubose and took third in the 4x400.
Beebe’s 4x800 relay team also took second, but finished 39 seconds behind Vilonia’s blazing fast 8:35.75.
Sophomore Kirkland Miller tied for second in the high jump with a leap of 5-10, and Patrom finished sixth.
The Badgers placed four in the top six of the pole vault, but Vilonia’s Tripp Reed won it by going 10 feet.
Nathan Clifton and Patrom finished sixth and seventh respectively in the long jump. Clifton also took fourth in the triple jump while teammates Wyrick and Tyler Childress finished tied for fifth. Grier finished third and Jones seventh in the shot put.
On the same day, the Lady Badgers took part in the Heber Springs Relays and finished fifth overall out of 18 teams with 43 points. The host team narrowly edged out Batesville 119 to 116, with Des Arc and Harding Academy taking third and fourth with 87 and 47 points.
Jacksonville Lighthouse Charter School was also at Heber Springs, with the boys finishing eighth out of 20 teams with 33 points and the Lady Wolves getting seven total points for 15th place.
In the girls’ competition, Lighthouse’s Naje’ Harper took sixth in the 100-meter dash while Beebe’s Jabria Coleman finished eighth. Harper also finished seventh in the 200m.
Beebe’s Taylor McGraw finished fourth and Coleman fifth in the 400, and Beebe’s Allie Lane took fifth in the 800. Lady Badger Sydnye Shuttleworth finished seventh in the two-mile race and sixth in the pole vault.
McGraw took fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 30 feet. Shea Holland and Kierston Miller took seventh and eighth in the shot put and Tori Lovelady finished third and Natalie Biggs sixth for Beebe in the discus throw.
In the boys’ meet, sprinter Jordan McNair took second in the 100-meter dash, finishing in 11.34 behind Highland’s Deon Stewart. The same duo finished one and two in the 200m as well, with Stewart’s 22.97 edging out McNair by less than 3/10ths.
