A dozen Pea Ridge varsity track athletes qualified for the 2013 4A State High School Track and Field Championships set to get underway tomorrow, May 3.
Eight girls and four boys will get up early Thursday to make the long trek to Heber Springs, the host of this year’s championships.
Sophomore Mikhaela Cochran was the star performer for the ’Hawks, leading the girls scoring with 22 points while qualifying for state in three events. She was the only local athlete to qualify in an individual event. Cochran anchored the winning 4x100 relay team (54.46) and also placed second in the high jump (4’11”) and discus (89-8) to gain state berths.
She rounded out her scoring with a fifth place in the shot put (27-4).
Senior Justin Averette led the boys in scoring with 15 points, placing in four events. Averette ran second-leg in the second place 4x100 relay (46.36), placed third in the 200 (24.27), fourth in the 100 (12.03) and seventh in the 400 (57.05).
Joining Cochran in the girls 4x100 championship team was Emma Pitts, Ashtyn Mondy and Kerstin Hobbs. On the boys statequalifying state sprint relay team was Lloyd Kalberloh, Nicklaus Mooneyhan and Logan Rose, along with Averette.
The four other girls who qualified for the state meet were members of the 4x800 team, who took second in that event. Members were Rilee Patrick, Anna Morgan, Savannah Cypert and Casi Caton.
The girls qualified with a time of 11:28.21.
The senior girls finished third in the meet, emerging from a four-way battle to take that spot in the final event, the 4x400 relay. Berryville ran away with the meet, scoring 137 points with Gravette taking second with 112.
Pea Ridge finished with 78, followed by Ozark 75, Gentry 74, Prairie Grove 63, Lincoln 53 and Farmington 25.
The boys finished a half point behind Prairie Grove, 46-45.5, to finish sixth in the boys standings.
Gentry won the meet going away with 192 points, with Farmington second with 154, followed by Gravette 89, Ozark 61.5, Prairie Grove 46, Pea Ridge 45.5, Lincoln 43 and Berryville 17.
Besides the Lady ’Hawks’ Cochran’s 22 points, two other thinclads scored in double figures. Freshman Mondy scored 13 points (100, fourth, 13.86; 200, fourth, 28.56; long jump, eighth,13-7; 4x100) and Pitts scored 10 (100, fourth, 13.86; 200, sixth, 28.76; 4x100).
Rilee Patrick scored six (400, sixth, 1:11; 4x800, second; 4x400, fourth, 4:52); Liz McGowan, six (shot put, third, 27-9); Morgan, six (4x800, second; 4x400, fourth; 1,600, seventh, 6:51); Caton, five (4x800, second; 800, sixth, 2:57);
Cypert, three (4x800, second;
triple jump, eighth, 28-9); Erika Zamarron, two (400, eighth, 1:13; 4x400, fourth); Hobbs, two (4x100, first); and Hanson, one (4x400, fourth).
Besides Averette, Rose also scored in double figures, finishing with 12. He was third in the high jump (5’8”), seventh in the 100 (12.14) and seventh in the discus (93-1) while running on the second place 4x100 relay team.
Two other ’Hawk boys scored to round out the totals. Lloyd Kalberloh scored 9 by placing third in the long jump (19-10.5), eighth in the 200, and was on the 4x100 team. Kalberloh was a scant 2.5 inches away from qualifying for state in the long jump. Justin Stamps scored all the distance points for the ’Hawks (7) by placing fifth in the 3,200 (12:36.2);
seventh in the 1,600 (5:39.1), and eighth in the 800 (2:23.4).
Sports, Pages 7 on 05/01/2013