T-H Sports Editor
PINE BLUFF -- The Pine Bluff Zebras and Fillies dominated their own Wendy's-Andrew Butler Relays Friday as the several of the state's best high school track and field teams gathered for the competition.
The Zebras successfully defended their championship while the Fillies took back the championship after finishing second a year ago to Little Rock McClellan.
The Pine Bluff boys rolled up 150 points to easily out-distance second place Texarkana, which finished with 78 points.
Point totals for the Forrest City Mustangs were not available at press time.
The Fillies collected 112 total points, to hold off second-place Texarkana which tallied 86 points. West Memphis was third with 64 points.
Forrest City's Lady Mustangs got 26 of their 27 total points from senior Verika Robinson, who missed winning the high point award by a single point to West Memphis' Marquita Aldridge.
"We competed well and I'm not disappointed at all," said Forrest City Lady Mustang Coach Lewis Etheridge. "Our girls were never intimidated and they got to see what it takes to build and have a successful track program. It was a good tune-up for us before we go to the conference meet, Thursday."
Robinson ran second in both the 1,600 and 3,200-meter races and won the 800-meter run.
Tiffany Taggert finished first in the 100 meter dash for the Fillies, recording a time of 12.91 and Amber Wooten took first in both the 110 and 300 meter hurdles.
Wooten finished with a 15.53 in the 110 and 47.17 in the 300 meter event, and also ran a leg of the 400 meter relay which the Fillies captured with a time of 48.6 seconds.
Lakesha Martin, Crystal Sampson and Taggert were the other members of that team.
Martin, Sampson, and Taggert combined with Tierra Morrow to take the 800 meter relay with a time of 1:44 and Raven Harris, Tanekia Harris, Destiny Brown and Latasha Johnson finished first in the 3200 meter relay with a time of 10:51.19.
Brown collected a second in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:40 and Martin was first in the 400 meter dash, recording a finish of 59.6 seconds.
Forrest City and West Memphis were the only two AAAAA-East schools at the meet.
Meanwhile in the boys' side, the Zebras got a first-place finish from Wallace Rayford clocking an 11:14 in the 100-meter and also a first in the 1,600-meter dash behind a 4:38.37 performance from Mario Urquhart.
In the 200-meter dash, Cedric Taggert was first with a time of 21.8 seconds and Wallace Rayford finished second, recording a time of 22.18 seconds.
Pine Bluff won the 800-meter relay, the 400-meter relay, and the 3,200-meter relay.
Miles Tackett won the long jump with a leap of 22'8" while Reeves finished third in the 3200 meter run with a time of 11:01.15.
The Zebras were beaten in the final event, the 1600 meter relay by the Texarkana Razorbacks with the teams running in different heats and Texarkana finishing with 3:21.80 and the Zebras recording a time of 3:21.93.
The Mustangs will compete in the AAAAA-East Conference Meet, which will be held Thursday, April 26, at West Memphis.
Forrest City is the three-time defending conference track champions.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Sylvan Hills Bears showed Forrest City why they are ranked fifth in the high school baseball standings and why they are leading the AAAAA-East conference Friday at the Sports Complex.
Playing fundamentally sound baseball at every position, the Bears swept the Mustangs in a varsity conference doubleheader, winning 8-2 and 12-2.
The Mustangs fall to 5-13 overall for the year and slip to 2-9 in the league with three games left to play and no chance for postseason.
The Bears used a complete game effort by pitcher Jason Duncan in the first game who held the Mustangs to the two runs while scattering eight hits and issuing just two walks. Duncan struck out six Mustang hitters along the way.
The Bears led 8-0 before the Mustangs pushed two runs across in the bottom of the seventh inning when Mark Lewis walked and scored on Brandon Cochran's RBI double. Cochran scored on Will Harris' RBI single.
Dustin Gore started for the Mustangs and went six innings before giving way to Daffy Norment, who pitched the final inning.
Gore allowed six runs on 11 hits while giving up three walks. Norment gave up the final two Sylvan Hills runs on four hits.
Jeremy Brown scored three times for the Bears while Seth Weinberg and Justin Parks scored two runs each.
Forrest City kept the nightcap close for four innings, trailing just 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth.
The Bears scored three runs in the inning to lead 6-0 and chased Forrest City starting pitcher Colby McKennon.
The Mustangs scored both of their runs in the top of the sixth with two outs when Cochran reached base and Harris singled and pulled into second base on an errant throw by the Bears' center fielder.
Both scored on Danny Flowers' RBI base hit.
The Bears capped the doubleheader by ending the game under the 10-run rule in the bottom of the sixth when they scored six times.
Neal Treat led the Bears' offensively in Game two, scoring three times while Brent Mason, Nick Miller and Weinberg each scored twice.
Matt Dillon went the distance for Sylvan Hills, holding the Mustangs to just two runs on seven hits. he did not walk anyone and struck out one.
Forrest City's McKennon went 4 1/3 innings and gave up six Sylvan Hills runs on nine hits and one walk. Marcus Hancock pitched the final 1 2/3 innings, giving up six runs on nine hits and one walk.
The Mustangs will host Jonesboro Tuesday, April 24 for a single varsity game and will close out the year Tuesday, May 1, when they host Cabot for a conference twinbill.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Libby Martin and Amanda Riffle combined to score six runs Friday afternoon to help push the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots to a 15-5 run-rule win over the Barton Lady Bears.
Leading 8-1, the Lady Patriots exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to end the game.
The victory helped to erase a 4-3 loss to the Lady Bears earlier this month -- the only blemish of P-W's season.
The Lady Patriots end the regular season at 10-1 and weather permitting, will play tonight at 7 p.m., in the 6AA District Tournament at Hazen.
The Lady Patriots earned a bye into the semifinal game because Altheimer did not field a team this season.
Barton and DeValls Bluff will start the district tournament at 4 p.m. and Hazen and Clarendon will play at 5:30 p.m.
Those two winners will play at 7 p.m.
P-W will play the Carlisle-Elaine winner. A victory would put the Lady Patriots into the district finals at 8:30 p.m.
Should the weather cancel today's schedule, the tournament games will be played Wednesday.
"Friday against Barton, we hit the ball about as well as we have hit all year," said P-W coach Beverly Bass. "But more importantly, we played solid defense in the field and did not make any errors."
P-W took a 2-0 lead with two runs in the bottom of the first when Martin and Riffle each scored. Andrea Cooper scored in the third inning to push the P-W lead to 3-0.
Martin, Riffle, Leslie Hoots, Ashley McGraw and Jenny Loewer each scored to make it an 8-0 lead in the third inning.
Barton got a run in the fourth and added to that in the fifth.
But the Lady Patriots batted around in the sixth to score the seven runs, highlighted by home runs from Nikki Bass and Hoots and a run-scoring triple from McGraw.
McGraw and Hoots each scored twice while Marla Gardner, Loewer, Cooper and Bass each added single runs.
The top four teams will advance to the Region 3 Tournament, which begins Saturday, April 28, at Pocahontas.