GRAVETTE — Entering the 1-4A District Junior Track championships in Gravette last week, the Lady Blackhawks had not only never won a district trophy since leaving the 2A classification several years ago, they usually ranked toward the bottom of the standings. No longer.
Having their best results from field competition in years to start the meet, the Lady ’Hawks stayed close then finished with a flourish to surprise the field and claim the runner-up trophy, scoring over 100 points for the first time in the history of the school.
Late heroics allowed the ’Hawksto eclipse the century mark, scoring 103 points to slip past Ozarks’ 100 total and Berryville’s 99. Gentry won the meet with 127, finishing the year undefeated against 1-4A competition.
Gentry jumped way in front of district teams after piling up 64 points in the field events to start the day. Pea Ridge scored 34 in the field events to rank third behind Gentry and Ozark’s 51 markers. Going through the running events, the ’Hawks kept hovering near the top, fluctuating between third and fourth place for much of the meet.
With only three events left in the 16-event meet, Gentry was firmly ahead with 103 with Ozark next with 90, Pea Ridge furtherback with 75, just ahead of Berryville’s 72. However, Morgan’s third-place finish in the 800 coupled with Riley Patrick’s fifthplace scored 10 points to put them hot on Ozark’s heels as the Billies didn’t place in the event.
This allowed Pea Ridge to creep to within five points, trailing 90-85 with two events left.
This set the stage for the 200 dash where the ’Hawks came up big, grabbing third (Emma Pitts), fourth (Ashtyn Mondy) and eighth (Cochran) to rack up 12 points to blow by Ozark as the ’Hawks led the Billies 97-92 with just the 4x400 relay left.
While Ozark outran the ’Hawks in the relay, it was only by one place and not enough to deny the ’Hawks’ claim on second place.
A pair of ’Hawks claimed individual district titles with freshman Mikhaela Cochran capturing both the shot put and discus titles. Cochran threw the shot 33’2” to whip the field by three feet and her winning 78’11” toss easily bested all 1-4A discuscompetitors. Cochran was also the team’s high point athlete, accumulating 28.5 points in the discus, shot put, long jump, 200, 100 hurdles and 4x100 relay.
Ninth-grader Anna Morgan won the 1,600-meter title in what was most likely the most electrifying race of the day. Running fourth for most of the four-lap race, Morgan battled for the lead with 300 meters left, with runners from Huntsville and Gentry swerving to block her attempt.
Frustrated with her attempts to take the lead, Morgan finally swung out wide and out-sprinted her competitors to the final curve. The Gentry distance ace then pulled up alongside Morgan coming out of the last curve and the pair raced down the home stretch stride for stride until the ’Hawk star pushed ahead just enough to take the race at the tape. Her time was 6:02, a personal best and a time that will make her a threat this week at the varsity district meet tomorrow, also in Gravette.
Coach Lafe Caton said: “The girls did a great job. They havebeen working hard all spring and had a great meet. This was a team effort all the way with a lot of our girls scoring points.”
In all, 10 Lady ’Hawk athletes contributed points in what was their best district meet in over a decade.
Athletes scoring for the ’Hawks include: Cochran 28.5,Morgan 20.5, Pitts 19.5, Patrick 10.5, Mondy 9.5, Maggie Fletcher 6, Jennifer Anthony 2.5, Amber Kalberloh 2, Hanson 1.5 and Woods 1.5.
Girls team results for the meet: Gentry 127, Pea Ridge 103, Ozark 100, Berryville 99, Gravette 63, Huntsville 56, Prairie Grove 30 and Farmington 16.
Sports, Pages 9 on 04/25/2012