SEARCY — The Bryant Hornets’ 4 x 100-meter relay team flew to a 43.08 time to win the event at the 2021 Meet of Champs on Saturday.
The team included Gabe Allen, Kyle Knox, River Gregory and Kaleb Knox. Nashville was second in 43.60.
If anyone is surprised that Kaleb Knox will be competing in the decathlon later this week in Fayetteville, they shouldn’t be. Along with the 4 x 100 relay, he competed in four other events and scored in each one leading the Hornets to a second-place finish as a team. Bryant’s 38 points were only topped by Vilonia’s 46. There were 49 school represented at the annual Meet, which brings together the top performers from the State meets for each classification, wrapping up the season.
“Kaleb Knox is the first Bryant athlete to compete in five events at the Meet of Champs,” noted Hornets head coach Steve Oury. “I gave him the option to opt out of at least one of them, but he wanted to do them all. He had a great senior season and will get to compete one more time at the state decathlon, along with Ammon Henderson.”
Henderson helped two Bryant relays put up points and also finished fifth in the Meet of Champs 800 meter run.
“I was proud of the 4 x 100 team for taking care of business,” Oury said. “Their handoffs weren’t perfect, but they still ran close to their best time of the season. We will never apologize for getting a victory.”
Kaleb Knox was second in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.63, third in the 110 hurdles (15.31), seventh in the 100-meter dash (11.03) and eighth in the long jump (19’6.5”).
Henderson’s time in the 800 was 1:59.25.
Bryant’s 4 x 400 relay team of Kyle Knox, LaQuav Brum field, Henderson and Gregory ran a season-best 3:25.37 to finish fourth.
In the 4 x 800, Bresner Austin, Mitchell Elmore, Hagan Austin and M.J. Ferguson combined on an 8:27.78 clocking to take seventh.
“The 4 x 400 team ran a really gutsy race,” said Oury. “They took 4 seconds off their best time of the season and were in the hunt to win it. Kyle Knox hadn’t run this race all year but did a great job of leading off and La’Quav Brumfield ran a spectacular leg. Just a great effort by all four guys.”
