By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Sylvan Hills Lady Bears and the Beebe Badgers boys repeated as 5A-Central track champions Tuesday at Beebe High School’s A.S. “Bro” Erwin Stadium. Both teams won by large margins, but the Badger boys were scarcely threatened, nearly tripling second place Mills. Beebe finished with 190 points to Mills’ 77. Sylvan Hills was third with 74 while J.A. Fair had 68, McClellan 65 and Jacksonville finished with 34 points.
The Lady Bears’ conference title was their third in a row. They finished with 236 points to Beebe’s 190. Mills was a very distant third with 60 points. Jacksonville finished fourth with 49 while McClellan and Fair each scored 14.
Sylvan Hills sophomore Erykah Sanders was the meet’s high-point winner, finishing with 30.5 points for the Lady Bears.
She was second to teammate Makayla Smith in the triple jump and 300-meter hurdles. She was also third in the long jump. Smith jumped 33-9 to Sanders’ 32-1. Beebe’s Hannah McGee and Taylor McGraw were the other two state qualifiers in that event. Jacksonville’s Amber Lockhart won the long jump with a leap of 15-10 while Beebe’s Marianna Richey finished second. Tatianna Lacy of Jacksonville finished fourth to qualify for state.
Sylvan Hills’ Sa’Maya Farmer won the shot put with a toss of 33-9. Beebe’s Shea Holland finished third at 30-5. Lady Bears Jayla Bell and Raigen Thomas both threw 30-4, but only Bell advances to state for throwing it in an earlier attempt than Thomas and earning fourth place.
Two Lady Bears and one Lady Badger qualified for state in the discus. Sophomore Jayla Bell finished second with a toss of 98-7. Beebe’s Tori Lovelady was third while SH senior Thomas was fourth.
Lockhart also won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.76. She was the only runner to come in under 17 seconds and did so against a -2.3-wind factor.
Mills’ Amanda Shaw scorched her preliminary heat time to win the 100-meter dash. Sylvan Hills’ Aliya Hatton was second. Jacksonville’s Lacy finished third and Lady Bear freshman O’Shayla Muldrow, who won the preliminaries and had the fastest seedtime, still qualified for state in fourth place.
Chloe George won the 1,600-meter race by two seconds with a time of 5:59.06. Beebe’s Natalie Childress and Allie Lane were second and third while Sylvan Hills’ Allysia Marbley finished fourth.
It was almost an SHHS sweep in the 400-meter dash. Muldrow, Ashley Jefferson and Hatton took the top three spots while Beebe’s Annmarie Covington was the final state qualifier. Muldrow also won the 200-meter dash, beating Shaw by .2 seconds with a time of 27.27. Lacy finished fourth to qualify for state in that event.
McGraw won the 800-meter with a time of 2:35.80, finishing ahead of three more Lady Bears. Dallyn Stubbs, Jones and George were second, third and fourth.
Dasia Harris and Daveiuna Jones took the top two spots in the high jump by going 4-8. Sydnye Shuttleworth of Beebe qualified for state by clearing 4-6 for third place.
Sylvan Hills’ Grace Persson won the 3,200 meters in just her second meet of the season. She finished more than 16 seconds ahead of second place with a time of 14:02.49. Lane and McGraw were second and third for Beebe while Sylvan Hills’ Gabriella Marquez finished fourth.
Beebe’s 4x800 relay team of Childress, Strayhorn, McGraw and Covington won by almost a minute with a time of 10:35.06.
The Lady Bears didn’t enter the 4x400 team that ran the fastest 5A time in the state last week at Heber Springs, but still won that event. George, Sanders, Smith and Stubbs finished with a time of 4:25.43 to beat Beebe by 5.51 seconds. Jacksonville’s team of Lacy, Lockhart, Dyshaii Doyne and Asiah Williams qualified for state by finishing fourth.
The meet was not without disappointment for the Lady Bears. Their 4x100-meter relay team crossed the finish line third, but was disqualified for failing to make the first baton exchange within the limited distance. That knocked them out of state for that event.
Jacksonville crossed the finish line second, but won the event because McClellan, who finished first in a neck-and-neck race at the line, was also disqualified for the same violation. Jacksonville’s winning team included Williams, Lacy, Lockhart and Doyne. Beebe finished second with Bri Martindill, Allison Strayhorn, Lani Wolfe and Richey.
In the boys’ meet, Connor Patrom fell one point short of being high-point winner, and would have been if the 4x100 relay team had not been disqualified.
He was on Beebe’s winning 4x400-meter team along with Taylor Boyce, Ahmad Nelson and Logan Archer.
Patrom took second in the high jump and third in the long jump, both events won by McClellan’s Tyrse Lair. Patrom was also fourth in the 100-meter dash.
Jacksonville freshman Orion Turner won the boys’ 100-meter dash with a time of 11.47 against a -1.9-wind factor. Beebe’s Trip Smith was second J.A. Fair’s Jabraylon Ellis, the high-point winner, was third.
Ellis won the 200-meter dash ahead of Beebe’s Keishun Davidson and Jacksonville’s Kameron Robinson. Ellis also won the 400-meter dash over Davidson.
Sylvan Hills’ Nathan Burd won the 800 and 1,600-meter races. Beebe’s John Paul Savage, Logan Brown and Gus McCoy were second through fourth in the 800. Savage, McCoy and Beebe’s Colin Brock took the final three qualifying spots in the 1,600.
McCoy won the 3,200 with a time of 11:18.91 to beat Burd, teammate Sean Langley and Savage.
Sylvan Hills’ Anthony Duncan won both hurdle races. He finished the 110 high hurdles in 15.48 while Beebe’s Smith and Archer were third and fourth. Duncan crossed the line in 40.02 in the 300 intermediate hurdles while Archer, Smith and Boyce were second through fourth.
Jacksonville’s 4x100 relay team qualified for state with a third-place finish while Sylvan Hills was fourth. Sylvan Hills also got into state in the 4x400 with a fourth-place finish.
Beebe’s Isiah Hutson and Nathan Clifton were the only two competitors in the pole vault, and both cleared 10-6.
Jacksonville’s Terry Brown won the discus with a toss of 129-5. Beebe’s Reese Anders was third at 117-7.
The Class 5A state meet will be held May 5 at Hot Springs High School.
