By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Beebe boys and Sylvan Hills girls won championships at the 5A-Central Conference track meet Friday at Beebe’s Erwin Stadium.
The Badgers were utterly dominant in the boys’ meet. Second through fifth place combined did not match Beebe’s 268 points, and all seven other teams added together only beat the Badgers by 34. McClellan was second with 85 points. Sylvan Hills took third with 74, J.A. Fair scored 62, North Pulaski 30, Mills 27 and Jacksonville 24.
The Lady Bears were in a much tougher competition, prevailing with an impressive 196, beating out the host team by 38 points. Mills also competed well, specializing in field events to score most of its 118. The Jacksonville girls were fourth with 42 points.
McClellan scored 28 and North Pulaski 18. J.A. Fair did not score in the girls’ meet and Pulaski Academy did not enter a team in boys’ or girls’ competition.
Beebe junior Connor Patrom was the top individual scorer in the boys’ meet. He won the long jump, took second in the 100-meter dash to Sylvan Hills’ Keyundra Hardimon, was third in the 200- and 400-meter races and finished fifth in the high jump. He also served on Beebe’s 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams that each finished second.
The Badgers swept the top four spots in the pole vault, 300-meter hurdles and 3,200-meter race. They took the top two spots in the 1,600-meter race and discus, and took three of the top four in the 1,600.
J.A. Fair’s Jabraylon Ellis won the 200-meter dash and Beebe’s Keishaun Davidson finished second. Sylvan Hills’ Lukas Burrow took fourth to qualify for state, and his teammates Nick Porter and Hardimon scored points by finishing fifth and sixth.
McClellan’s Andre Jones won the 400-meter race and Ellis was second. Fair’s Justyce Allen took fourth behind Patrom for the final state qualifying spot.
Jordan Jones of Fair won the 800-meter race, but Sylvan Hills junior Malcolm Nelson, Beebe’s John Paul Savage and Jacksonville’s Emmanuel Moore qualified for state by finishing second, third and fourth.
Beebe junior Chris Owen won the mile while sophomore teammate Gus McCoy finished second. Moore took third and Savage fourth. Owen and McCoy took the top two spots in the two-mile race as well, with Beebe’s Sean Langley finishing third and Savage fourth.
Jaylen Peterson of McClellan won the 110-meter high hurdles, but the Badger trio of Trip Smith, freshman Logan Archer and senior Micah Dubose took second, third and fourth to qualify for state.
North Pulaski freshman Ladarian Price was fifth and Jacksonville senior Trabek Price was sixth.
Davidson won the 300-meter intermediate hurdles for the Badgers, while teammates Dubose, freshman Richey Dane and Archer were second, third and fourth. North Pulaski sophomore Kris Johnson took fifth.
The Sylvan Hills team of Hardimon, Burrow, Porter and Malik Strong won the 4x100-meter relay. Fair took the 4x400 while Beebe’s Savage, Brown, Tyler Childress and Owen won the 4x800.
McClellan’s Jones and Beebe sophomore Kirkland Miller each cleared 6-feet, 2-inches in the high jump. Beebe swept the qualifiers in the pole vault, largely because Badger vaulters made up four of the five competitors.
Sophomore Isiah Hutson won the event at 10-6. Classmates Miller and Nathan Clifton each cleared 10-feet while junior Tanner Tozer and McClellan’s Jospeh Lewis cleared nine feet.
Patrom’s winning long jump went 19-9 1/4 inches and Strong’s winning triple jump was 41-2 3/4 .
Beebe seniors swept the throwing events. Dusty Grier tossed the shot put 45-1 1/2 to beat teammate Jesse Crisco by that inch and a half. North Pulaski’s David Jackson took third with a throw of 43-11 3/4.
Crisco won the discus with a toss of 139 feet, beating Mills’ James May by 14 feet. Jacksonville’s Terry Brown faulted three times in the finals, but his preliminary throw of 118-6 was good enough to qualify for state by finishing third. Beebe’s Wade Jones was the final state qualifier.
In the girls’ competition, Sylvan Hills not only won, but also made a statement about the future. Five of the Lady Bears’ state qualifiers were freshman and while four more were only sophomores. Sylvan Hills coach Grover Garrison also feels very confident about next year’s group of freshmen.
“We only have two seniors and one junior on this team, and everyone else is either a freshman or sophomore,” said Garrison. “This could be a special team. My eighth-graders are very talented as well.”
Sylvan Hills freshman Brielle Hayes won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.94. Jacksonville’s Tatiana Lacy took second. Lacy, however, won the 200-meter dash while Sylvan Hills’ Chanel Miller, also a freshman, was second and Hayes took third.
Yet a third Sylvan Hills freshman, Erykah Sanders, won the 400-meter dash to beat out sophomore teammate Chloe George by 1.46 seconds. Beebe’s Jabria Coleman was third in that race and a fourth freshman Lady Bear, Sierra Towles, finished fourth to qualify for state.
Sylvan Hills sophomore Dallyn Stubbs won the 800-meter race, finishing a little more than three seconds ahead of Beebe sophomore Allie Lane. Sylvan Hills senior Justis Jakes took third and Beebe junior Tori Colbert was fourth.
Beebe senior Trystan Taylor beat Stubbs in the mile while Lady Badger Taylor McGraw was third and North Pulaski’s Rachel Mason took fourth.
Mason, a sophomore, won the two-mile by a wide margin, finishing in 13.37.08 to beat Beebe freshman Courtney Smith by more than 34 seconds. Colbert was third and Sylvan Hills junior Gabriella Marquez took fourth.
Jacksonville’s Amber Lockhart came from nowhere to win the 100-meter high hurdles. She shaved nearly two full seconds off her preliminary time to finish in 17.38 seconds. Meanwhile, Sylvan Hills senior Jahnay Duncan dropped .31 seconds from her top preliminary time to finish second at 17.51. Beebe freshman Bri Martindill was third and Mills’ Zoreia Robinson took fourth.
Martindill took second in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles behind Robinson. Miller took fourth in that event to qualify for state.
Hayes, Miller, Sanders and Ka’Necia Allen won the 4x100 relay while Towles, Allen, Sanders and George won the 4x400.
Beebe’s Lane, Colbert, McGraw and Natalie Childress won the 4x800 relay.
Beebe and Mills were the only teams to enter the pole vault. Beebe’s Sydnye Shuttleworth and two Mills Comets cleared 7-6 to lead the event.
Mills freshman Cetra Dale won the long jump at 15-1, just three quarters of an inch farther than Hayes. Lockhart and Ducan were third and fourth while Lacy took fifth.
Beebe’s Hannah McGee broke up a top-four sweep by Sylvan Hills in the triple jump, finishing second. Miller won the event by leaping 32 feet while Sanders and sophomore Makayla Smith were third and fourth.
Dale won the shot put for Mills as well, but Sa’Maya Farmer of Sylvan Hills was second while Beebe’s Kierston Miller took third and Raigen Thomas of North Pulaski finished fourth. Dale also won the shot put, with Beebe junior Natalie Briggs taking second, Sylvan Hills freshman Jayla Bell taking third and Beebe junior Nicole Salman taking the final state qualifying spot.
