By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The West proved to be the best once again, but Beebe’s Reece Totty held his own in a stout field of 56 competitors during the Decathlon at Panther Stadium.
Totty, a two-sport senior standout, finished the two-day event in sixth place with 6,374 points and was in position for a top-five finish before stalling late in the 1,600-meter run, his final event.
Totty’s 121-foot discus throw earned him first in the event, giving him 710 vital points.
West schools took the top four spots, including overall winner Bradley Culp and runner up Stephen Soerens, both of Fayetteville.
Alex Miles of Rogers Heritage took third while Nathan Weir of Fort Smith Union finished fourth. Conway’s Jamarcus Harmon completed the top five.
Totty was well out of the top ten at the close of Day 1 with 3,152 points, but his first four events Thursday netted him 2,835 points and had him flirting with the top five entering the 1,600. Totty started strong in his flight but faded from third to sixth halfway through and never recovered.
“It’s a lot of hard work coming out here and doing all of this,” Totty said. “A lot of stuff you’ve never thought about doing before. But they’re going to put you through it anyway.”
There were a lot of added events for Totty, a 300-meter hurdler, pole-vaulter and relay team member at Beebe. But he was good enough to best the Bryant tandem of Troy Smith and Tanner Tolbert, who finished behind Totty with 6,349 and 6,339 points respectively.
“I didn’t do too bad in the pole vault, but I wish I could have done better,” Totty said. “Oddly enough, shot put and discus are about my best these past two days.”
Totty finished fifth in the shot put with a throw of 40-09.
Beebe’s Austin Benton withdrew from the 1,600 meters after falling out of contention with 2,283 points that left him in 56th place. Benton did not start in three of the first-day events, the shot put, high jump and 400-meter run.
“It was really awesome,” Benton said. “I’m ready to come back next year. I know what I need to do next year to get better.”
Phillip Treat led the Cabot contingent with a 20th place finish thanks to a strong close in the 1,600 meters. Treat was in 29th through nine events before he paced the pack in the 1,600 with a 4:50.64 to earn 893 points and leap almost a quarter of the field.
“I think our coaches did good trying to prepare us,” Treat said. “But our time for preparation wasn’t very good. We only had two days to do it before the meet, so we were pretty sore going in.”
A solid 1,600 meters boosted Cabot’s Zach White, who finished 40th overall thanks to his fifth-place time of 5:05.50, good for 745 points.
