Photos courtesy of Carla Thomas
CONWAY — At the 7A-Central Conference Track Championship held at Conway Thursday, the girls team title was not decided until[more] the final event. The end result was that the Bryant Lady Hornets won the conference championship, but so did the Cabot Lady Panthers.
When all the results were tabulated, Bryant and Cabot both led in the team standings with 154 points. A very rare phenomenon, but there is no tie-breaker in track. Both teams were awarded the conference championship. North Little Rock finished third with 121 points followed by LR Central (43), Hall (36), Mount St. Mary (36), and West Memphis (29).
“With this track championship, it allowed us to reach our goal of securing the double crown,” noted Lady Hornets coach Danny Westbrook, “winning the conference title in both cross country and track the same year.
“I am so proud of this team,” he added. “Going into the meet, we knew Cabot was going to be extremely hard to beat and they definitely lived up to that. Our girls battled all day. We had so many girls digging deep and finding ways to score. It took every possible point to secure the final outcome of sharing the championship.”
As they have all season, sophomore Alexis Royal and junior Brianna White led the way for the Lady Hornets scoring a combined 67 points.
Royal was Bryant’s leading scorer with 34 points. She set a new school record in the triple jump with her winning leap of 37’6”. She was second in both the 100 meter hurdles (15.6) and the 300 meter hurdles (49.3). She added a fourth-place in the long jump (15’7”) and was a member of both sprint relays that finished third.
White scored 33 points. She took the conference title in the 200 meter dash with a winning time of 26.1. She took second in the long jump (16’1”) and finished third in both the triple jump (34’ 9”) and the 100 meter dash (12.6). She was also a member of both sprint relays that finished third.
Distance runners Hannah Raney and Stacy Emmerling combined for 43 points. Raney scored 23 points with second-place finishes in the 1600 meter run (5:50) and the 3200 meter run (12:56). She also added a fourth-place in the 800 meter run (2:33) and ran on the 3200 meter relay that finished third. Emmerling scored 20 points taking third-place in the 800 meter run (2:31), 1600 meter run (5:52), and 3200 meter run (13:00). She was also on the 3200 meter relay that finished third.
Sophomore Keeley Wilson took the conference title in the high jump with her winning leap of 4’9”. Lauren Magneson was second also clearing 4’9”.
Kiana Thomas added a fourth place finish in the 400 with a time of 1:05.3 while Jade Hampton added a sixth in the 100 hurdles with a 17.7.In the pole vault, Sara Holt was fifth, clearing 7’6” with Savannah Reep finishing sixth at 6’6”.
In the relays, Sarah Evans and Gabriell Allen joined Royal and White in the 400. The quartet combined on a time of 51.0. In the 1600, it was Lauren Stiles and Thomas along with Royal and White turning in a 4:14.The 3200 team was Stacie Waite along with Raney, Stiles and Emmerling. They finished in 10:56.
The top six finishers in each event qualify for the State meet in Conway on Thursday, May 5. The top three finishers were named All-Conference.
“We qualified several people into the State meet so I feel like we have a good chance to do really well there next week,” Westbrook said.
