By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CABOT -- The undefeated Jonesboro Hurricane tied a school and AAAAA-East record Tuesday by shooting a team-round of 288 Tuesday at the AAAAA-East District Golf Tournament at Greystone Country Club in Cabot.
The even-par, 18-hole score gave Jonesboro (51-0) first place.
The 288 score tied the school record for an 18-hole match set in 1996. It also matched the conference mark.
Cabot finished second with a 297 and Searcy was third with a 345.
The top three teams in the meet advance to the Class AAAAA state tournament.
Willie Little shot a three-under 69 to tie Tyler Yazza of Cabot for the lowest score. Little beat Yazza in a four-hole playoff to earn medalist honors.
Stephen Cox shot a 71 to tie for third, Marcus Huffer shot a 73 for fifth, Matt Sullivan was sixth with a 75 and Chris Woodard shot a 78 for eighth-place overall.
For the Forrest City Mustangs, two strokes meant the difference between a third place finish and a fourth place finish.
Forrest City missed finishing in the top three and qualifying for state as a team by just that --two strokes.
Forrest City Coach Tommy Wheetley felt his Mustangs had a solid shot at third place.
Searcy, however, nosed out the Mustangs for third with a 345 while the Mustangs finished at 347.
A year ago, the Mustangs finished fifth with a team score of 379 and did not qualify anyone for the state tournament.
"The kids were disappointed," Wheetley said. "They felt going in that third place was in their grasp. They just missed."
Forrest City junior Sawyer Ramsey was the only Forrest City player to make the state tournament cut, finishing with an 81. He joined West Memphis' Jordan Payne and Jacksonville's Allen as state tournament qualifiers.
Jacksonville did not compete as a team, with just three golfers on the course.
"I am proud of what these guys have accomplished this season," Wheetley said. "Golf is a crazy game but these guys never gave up and they always represented Forrest City very well whereever they went."
Wheetley said it would be hard to pin-point a turning point in the match.
"It's hard to say," Wheetley said. "Playing 18 holes, a two-stroke difference is minute. Ramsey played about as well as he can play and Brian Hacker (86) played just as well. He just had some crazy stuff happen such as the ball hitting a wet spot on the greens or hitting a rock, just stuff like that."
Josh Coleman finished with an 89 and Jake Wade carded a 91 while John Scott Carroll finished the course with a 118.
High School golf is scheduled to become a fall sport next season with practice beginning in August and the season starting in September.
That could mean a new golf coach for Forrest City.
According to Athletic Director Mike Bender, Wheetley will rejoin the Forrest City high school football coaching staff and will coach the quarterbacks.
Wheetley's football duties would create the opening for a golf coach, according to Bender.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WALNUT RIDGE -- Gillett continued their unbeaten journey through postseason Tuesday and added yet another trophy to their case by taking a 4-0 win over Palestine-Wheatley in the finals of the Class AA Region 4 Tournament at Walnut Ridge.
Gillett, 15-1, won the regular season conference title and last week won the district title, beating Palestine-Wheatley in the finals 12-3.
At Walnut Ridge, the Lady Wolves defeated Marmaduke 15-0 on Saturday and handed Bay a 7-2 loss in Monday's semifinal. Tuesday's 4-0 victory completed the district and regional tournament sweep in which the Lady Wolves outscored their five opponents 41-to-5.
Both Palestine-Wheatley and Gillett are headed to the Class AA state tournament, which begins Saturday at Brockwell. Gillett will be No. 1 seed and will play Sloan-Hendrix at 6:45 p.m. while the Lady Patriots are a No. 2 seed into the state mix and will play either Arkansas Baptist or Benton Harmony-Grove at 1:30 p.m.
Benton Harmony-Grove is the Class AA defending state champion.
While Palestine-Wheatley senior pitcher Libby Martin was very good in the finals, Gillett junior Jona Howell was close to perfect.
Howell gave up one hit through seven innings and held the Lady Patriots hitless through the first three innings, just as she had done against Bay on Monday night.
In fact, it was P-W's Martin who collected the only hit off Howell, a fourth inning single.
Howell struck out eight, walked one and hit P-W's Brittany Gordon in the third inning, making Gordon P-W's first base runner.
After giving up the single to Martin, Howell retired 13 of the next 14 P-W hitters and ended the game by striking out the P-W side in order in the bottom of the seventh.
Martin gave up the four Gillett runs -- of which only two were earned -- on eight hits and one walk while striking out six Gillett hitters.
A couple of first inning P-W errors led to an early 2-0 Gillett lead.
With one out, an error after Kristen Hill had apparently struck out, left Hill at first base. Hill scored on Stephanie Hackney's RBI double to center field for a 1-0 lead. A two-out error brought in Hackney who had taken third base on a routine ground out sacrifice, for a 2-0 lead.
Gillett made that lead hold until the top of the sixth when Naomi Slater walked, stole second and third base and scored on a passed ball to Howell.
Ashley Reeves gave Gillett one more insurance run in the top of the seventh when she singled to lead the inning, stole second and third and scored on Hill's RBI single.
P-W, 12-5, had just three base runners in the game in Martin (single, walk) and Gordon (hit by pitch).
Hill was 3-for-4 at the plate scoring one run with two singles and an RBI. Hackney doubled and scored, Slater singled, walked and scored and Reeves singled and scored a run.
Tuesday's game was the third meeting between the two teams this season, two of which came in postseason tournament finals.
Howell was named the Regional Tournament's MVP and joined teammates Slater and Hackney on the All-Region Team.
P-W placed four players on the All-Region Team -- Martin, Andrea Cooper, Fallon Parker and Jenny Loewer while Hazen had Ariel Feltz and Ashton Isbell on the team. Bay's Samantha Carter, Carlisle's Tiffany Myers and Walnut Ridge's Ashley Hufstedler rounded out the All-Region selections.
Former Forrest City Coach Clark McBride is returning.
McBride, who helped coach the Forrest City seventh-grade football team in 1997 and head coached the Forrest City Colts the next season, has spent the last year at Hoxie.
This morning, Mike Bender, Forrest City Athletic Director, said Mcbride is coming back to Forrest City to be the offensive line coach with the Mustang football team as well as being named the new high school track coach. McBride replaces Jeff Hudson, who voluntarily stepped down from his head coaching duties with the track team.
McBride has been the boys and girls' track coach at Hoxie the past season.
The hiring of McBride is just one of several coaching moves Bender said will be made over the next few days.
"We are trying to move forward and we want to get the best personnel we can in the right places," Bender said.
Also Wednesday, Bender announced that Forrest City veteran coach Tommy Wheetley would return to the high school football staff in the fall to become quarterbacks coach.
Wheetley, along with Lewis Etheridge, coached the seventh-grade football team this past season. Wheetley has been the high school golf course for several years as well.