By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
FAYETTEVILLE – In their first-ever collegiate meet competing for the No. 1 ranked defending national champions, 2015 Cabot graduates Lexi and Tori Weeks finished first and second respectively in the Arkansas Indoor Invitational on Friday at the Randall Tyson Track Center.
Another Cabot graduate, Ariel Voskamp – a fifth-year senior for the Razorbacks women’s track team – finished third, making it a Cabot clean sweep of the top three positions.
Lexi Weeks’ performance exceeded her goals for the first meet. The Razorback freshman cleared a personal best 14 feet, 9 inches, which qualifies her for the indoor national championships and the Olympic trials.
“Coming out, I was hoping to have a good meet,” Lexi Weeks said. “I was having great practices coming into it, but clearing 14-9 the way I did, clean, I couldn’t believe it.”
Friday’s meet was small with mostly smaller schools participating besides Arkansas, a track-and-field powerhouse for the last 30 years. All three Cabot natives waited for almost 90 minutes for other competitors to begin approaching competitive heights.
They entered the competition at 13-1, and Lexi’s first vault was a sign that it was going to be a good day. She cleared her first bar by a wide margin and did not need a second attempt at any height until she went for 15-1, which would have equaled last year’s NCAA national championship-winning height.
Though she didn’t reach it Friday, it is a goal before the season is over.
“I want 15 feet this season,” Lexi said. “That’s a goal for sure. I’d also like to do really well at indoor nationals. I qualified for that today and to have a good meet there would really be great.”
Tori Weeks cleared 14-3 for second place and Voskamp reached 13-10 in a bit of a disappointing performance for her. She has been a consistent 14-foot jumper and has finished in the top five in the last two NCAA national championship meets.
Friday’s meet is the first of a very busy indoor schedule, with competitions every weekend through February.
They will compete in New Mexico and Indiana next weekend before returning to Fayetteville on Jan. 29-30 to host the much larger Razorback Invitational. The Cabot trio will also compete in Fayetteville on Feb. 12-13 in the Tyson Invitational.
