By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JONESBORO -- On paper, Forrest City's 11th-place finish Monday at the Lady Hurricane Relays in Jonesboro might not look like such a good effort.
Especially for a Lady Mustang team who have finished first and second in their last two track meets.
But Forrest City Coach Lewis Etheridge isn't moaning or complaining and neither are the Lady Mustang team members.
"We competed with everyone in our conference and we were right there with them," Etheridge said. "Our kids aren't upset. They saw where we are as a team and where we need to be as we get ready for the AAAAA-East Conference Meet next week.
That meet will be right back at Jonesboro on Thursday, April 25.
West Memphis scored 88 points to win the meet with the host team, Jonesboro Lady Hurricane right behind in second with 75 points.
Batesville finished a strong third while Marion ran fourth and Delaplaine finished fifth.
The Lady Mustangs finished with 26 points, with just one first place finish.
In the junior high side of the combination girls' meet, Russian native Katya Kostetskaya helped Jonesboro Annie Camp cruise the the team title, piling up 172 points. Class A Delaplaine was a distant second with 74 points.
Kostetskaya competed in six events in the junior high meet and dominated each. Her times in the 200-meters, 400-meters and the 100-meter hurdles would have won the high school events.
Turrell's Amber Bledsoe ran to first place finishes in the 100, 200 and 400-meter dashes.
Forrest City's best finish in the 100-meter dash was eighth by Chasna House and 11th by Shianekia Blunt.
Forrest City's Jessica Perkins ran second to Bledsoe in the 200-meter event, finishing in a time of 26.62. Melissa Humphrey ran 12th.
Chiklisha McDaniel ran eighth in the 400-meter dash while Glenisha Williams finished near the back of the pack.
The Lady Mustangs won the 400-meter relay using the quartet of House, Blunt, Humphrey and Perkins.
Trailing by at least 30 meters, the Lady Mustangs outkicked West Memphis for the win.
Forrest City was disqualified in the 800-meter relay.
For the first time this season, the Lady Mustangs were shut out of the field events.
The team's leader in the high jump and long jump events, senior Deosha Agnew, did not compete. Agnew was attending a tryout at Arkansas Tech in Russellville in hopes of landing a basketball scholarship.
Perkins had a long jump of 14'6" well behind that of the winning effort of 16'9" by Marion's Maygan Fletcher.
The Lady Mustangs ran second in the 1,600-meter relay (Blunt, Caronica Randle, McDaniel and Perkins) in a time of 4:29.84 behind Marion's winning time of 4:28.04.
The two-mile relay team finished seventh in a time of 12:37.58. Incoming AAAAA-East conference member Mountain Home won the two-mile in a time of 10:56.95.
Batesville's Laura Insell earned the high-point award in the high school division. She won the 800-, 1600- and 3200-meters.
Insell is the reigning state champion in the 3200-meter run.
She won the 3200-meters with a time of 12:50.82, the 1600-meters with a time of 5:45.17 and the 800-meters in 2:37.07.
Pole vaulter Lindsey Adams of Nettleton eclipsed a meet record with a vault of 10-6 to claim the pole vault title but missed a personal-best height of 10-10.
The two Forrest City junior high girls' track teams competed Monday but as of press time, no results were available.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots are right back in the thick of the conference race.
And they are looking at a third-place finish -- provided they can collect a win over Hazen today and Barton on Thursday -- as they prepare for the district tournament, which begins on Monday.
On Friday, the Lady Patriots needed just three innings to blast Humphrey 15-0 in fast pitch softball action at home.
Monday's home conference game against Gillett went down to the final at-bat for the Lady Patriots.
It took a one out, two-RBI double by Beth Varvil to nail down a 9-8 win over the Lady Wolves.
Varvil's double scored Nikki Bass and Libby Martin for the win.
The Lady Patriots found themselves in a deep hole in the first inning when four errors allowed Gillett to take a 6-0 lead.
Slowly, with single runs in the bottom of the first and second (by Martin and Marla Gardner) the Lady Patriots climbed back into the game.
Trailing 7-2 going into the bottom of the third inning, Jenny Loewer, Ashley McGraw and Kara Siler each got on base and scored to pull within 7-5.
Andrea Cooper's run in the bottom of the fourth got P-W within a run at 7-6.
Gillett plated a single run in the top of the seventh to lead 8-6, before P-W rallied for the game-winning runs in the bottom of the inning.
"Our kids stayed in there and battled back," P-W Coach Beverly Bass said. "The key this time was they hit the ball."
Monday's victory avenged a 4-3 loss to Gillett back on April 5 and helps P-W's chances at earning the No. 3 seed into the district tournament.
"The win helped us but now we have to take care of business," Bass said. "We host Hazen today and we lost to them the first time we played them. So a win today would give us a split which will help our cause."
On Thursday, P-W goes to Barton, a team they have already defeated this season.
The district tournament begins Monday (April 22) at two sites -- DeValls Bluff and Hazen -- with the finals scheduled to be played at Hazen.
The Lady Patriots are 8-4 overall for the season.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Given a second chance, Sylvan Hills right fielder Casey Thomas atoned for an earlier dropped flyball.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Thomas caught and held on to an arching flyball off the bat of Jessica Long for the final out of Monday's game against the Forrest City Lady Mustangs.
Her catch preserved an 11-10 victory for the visiting Lady Bears in AAAAA-East Conference fast pitch softball action at the Sports Complex.
Monday's loss leaves the Lady Mustangs at 3-16 overall and 0-11 in the league. Sylvan Hills improves to 5-5 in the conference and still in the hunt for a playoff berth.
It was a game the Lady Mustangs appeared to have well-in-hand early, when the team exploded for six runs in the bottom of the first inning using two hits and two walks and two Sylvan Hills' errors.
The Lady Bears battled back to score three runs in the top of the second to trail 6-3 before Forrest City added a run in the bottom half of the inning for a 7-3 cushion when Holly Simon beat out an infield grounder and scored on an RBI single by Kim Hoots.
Sylvan Hills got four runs in the top of the third to tie the game at 7-7 before Forrest City second baseman Jennifer Ballard turned an unassisted double play to end the inning.
The Lady Bears took the lead at 8-7 with a single run in the fourth before the defensive wheels came off in the bottom of the inning when Sylvan Hills committed five errors -- four dropped flyballs and a miscue on a routine play to first. The last flyball was dropped by Thomas, which should have ended the inning with the game tied at 8-8.
The five errors helped put the Lady Mustangs back in front 10-8.
The Lady Bears regrouped in the top of the fifth to score three runs on a walk, two hits and and a Forrest City error to lead 11-10.
Forrest City loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth when Hoots singled with two outs and Natalie Nelson tomahawked a base hit up he middle before Tyeshia McDaniel walked. That brought up Long who flew out to Thomas in short right field.
Forrest City pitcher Stacey Gracey gave up the 11 runs on eight hits and nine walks.
Sylvan Hills pitcher Brittney Dickerson gave up the 10 runs on eight hits and five walks.
McDaniel, Hoots and Nelson each scored twice for Forrest City.
Palestine will hold player registration on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (April 22, 23, 24) for the upcoming summer youth baseball and softball programs, according to Recreation Supervisor Stan Siler.
Boys, ages 5-15 and girls, ages 5-16, are eligible to participate in league play. Proof of age is required at registration.
Registration will be held at Palestine City Hall on those three days from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
The signup fee is $25 per player.
* PREP SPORTS
FAST PITCH SOFTBALL
Monday's Scores
Sylvan Hills 11, Forrest City 10
Palestine-Wheatley 9, Gillett 8
Tuesday, April 16
Hazen at Palestine-Wheatley, 4 p.m.
SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL
Tuesday, April 16
Hughes at Osceola, 4 p.m.
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
Monday's Score
P-W at Gillett
Tuesday, April 16
Barton at Hughes, 4 p.m.
HIGH SCHOOL GOLF
AAAAA-East Conference Championship
Greystone Country Club - Cabot