Last week, girls track coach Heather Wade accomplished a feat that rarely gets accomplished. Her varsity squad won their third straight 4A-1 District Championship.
A district title in any sport is tough to achieve in the tough 4A-1 district, and back to back titles in any sport aren't very common. A three-peat is rarer still but it is something that the LadyHawk tracksters attained.
Coach Wade will go into her fourth season next year with an even rarer distinction of never having lost a senior girls district title. A strong showing in the field events shot the Lady Blackhawks into the lead and they never looked back in winning the championship by a 170-135 margin over second-place Gravette.
Pea Ridge scored 70 in the field events, going into the track portion of the meet with a solid lead over second-place Gentry with 54, and third-place Gravette who amassed 43. The biggest factor in their surge to the top was outscoring Gravette 38-11 in the high and triple jump events. The Lions could never overcome that deficit.
All great teams have at least one individual and this season's leader of the pack, or should I say flock, was Vanessa Wing. Wing stepped up to assume the mantle of last year's dominant track and field performer Mikaela Cochran.
Wing was the high point winner in the meet, winning five gold medals and a silver. Her 50.5 points personally outscored sixth-place team finisher Berryville, the last non-Pea Ridge team to win the district. She won the 200 (27.26), 400 (60.95), long jump (15'04"), and high jump (4'10") while settling for a second place in the 100 (13.34). She also anchored the 4x400 team to an easy win in 4:28.41.
Besides having a all-star to lead the way, a winning team has to have depth and there was plenty of that with 13 different Blackhawks scoring in the individual events. Even without any of Wing's points, the Lady 'Hawks would have still taken second in the meet.
Ashtyn Mondy scored 24 individual points along with scoring in two relays. Individuallly, Mondy was second in both the triple jump (29'2") and the pole vault (7'0") events while also taking fourth in the shot put (29'11") and sixth in the 100 (13.60).
Shelby Dunlap was a first-place winner in the triple jump (32'2") and finished third and sixth in the 300 and 100 meter hurdles with times of 55.14 and 18.71 respectively. With fellow hurdler Kiera Bryant taking second in the 300, the Lady 'Hawks outscored Gravette 14-0 to extinguish any last hope of Gravette making a comeback in the meet. Bryant also placed seventh in the 100 hurdles (19.41).
Vittoria Polanski and Jennifer Anthony were the other two athletes who placed in mutliple individual events. Polanski placed third and fourth in the 3,200- and 1,600-meter runs in 14:57 and 6:36 respectively. Anthony was the silver medalist in the 800 with a 2:45 clocking and also took sixth in the high jump (4'6").
Other athletes scoring individually were: Hannah Means, fifth 400 (1:06); Tori Scrogham, eighth 1,600 (7:47); Morgan Kelley, fifth 3,200 (16:36); Avery Dayberry, third high jump (4'8"); Rebecca Woods, sixth pole vault (6'0"); Meredith Mitchell, fourth discus (81'10"); and Melissa Landis, sixth discus (73'2").
In the relay events, the Lady Blackhawks won the 4x400, took third in the 4x100 and were fifth in the 4x800.
Final team standings were Pea Ridge 170, Gravette 135, Shiloh 108, Gentry 106, Prairie Grove 66, Berryville 45, Lincoln 21 and Huntsville 0.
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 05/04/2016