By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
OSCEOLA -- Led by Glenn Ritter, Jonesboro pulled away late to win the senior boys' division and the Lady Hurricane took second at the Osceola Seminole Relays in high school track and field Thursday.
Eight schools took part in the meet.
JHS scored 108 points, which was seven points better than Marion, to win the meet.
The Forrest City Mustangs finished fifth in their first ribbon meet of the year.
Mustang Coach Jeff Hudson said the team was competing minus several regulars.
Ritter earned high-point honors by scoring 301/2 points. That included winning the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, finishing second in the 800 and anchoring the winning 3,200-meter relay team.
The junior ran a time of five minutes, four seconds in the 1,600 and won the 3,200 in a clocking of 11:43. He ran 2:09 to finish second in the 800.
Ritter also combined with Chris Hall, Perry Walker and Chucky Jones to win the 3,200 relay in 9:06.
In the field events for Forrest City, Justin Jones was sixth in the long jump while LaCody Braddock was fourth in the high jump. Marquis Hunter finished fourth in the shot.
Forrest City took third in the two-mile relay using Ricky Beard, Brian Smith, Kelton Hamlin and Josh Freeman and ran third in the mile relay using the quartet of Hamlin, Kerry Perkins, Smith and Braddock.
In the 400-meter relay, Tae Chism, Andrew Embry, Braddock and Perkins ran to a sixth place finish.
Beard was third in both the mile and two-mile runs while Freeman ran fifth in the mile event.
Chism ran sixth in both the 100 and 200-meter sprints while Hamlin was second in the 400-meter run and Perkins placed third in the same event.
The Mustangs are scheduled to compete at the West Memphis FCA relays, to be run Saturday.
On the girls' side, Sara Mullally won the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs to pace the Lady Hurricane.
The sophomore won the mile in 6:08 and the two-mile in 14:14.
Other individual firsts for the Hurricane included Jones in the 400 (53.20) and Yuriy Morozov in the long jump (19 feet, one inch).
Jones and Morozov also combined with Hall and John Fullington to win the 1,600-meter relay (3:37.81).
Other firsts for the Lady Hurricane included Allison Taylor in the shot put (34-7) and the 3,200 relay team (12:38) of Courtney Boeckmann, Ashley Raborn, Meredith Daniel and Stacey Lewis.
Jonesboro's boys took control of the meet by finishing 2-3-4 in the 800. Ritter was second, while Hall was third and Walker fourth.
Ryan Williams also took thirds in the 100 and long jump.
The Lady Hurricane had seven second-place finishes in the meet. They included Taylor in the discus (92-81/2); Karess Winston in the shot (32-8); Katie Stripling in the high jump (5-4); Allissa Stanback in the 300 hurdles (54.1) and 100 hurdles (17.5); and Jackie Gilbert in the 400 (1:08.5).
The Lady Hurricane also took second in the 400 and 1,600 relays.
Stanback, Natasha Durant, Sharonda Turnbo and Kara Taylor combined to run 53.1 in the 400 relay, while Taylor, Stripling, Gilbert and Dominique Williams were second in the 1,600 relay in 4:34.
Forrest City Coach Rich Trail said the Junior Mustangs won the Osceola Meet held Wednesday.
Trail said the official results from the junior high meet were not made known until late Thursday afternoon due to a glitch in the Osceola scoring system.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Mountain Home catcher Janelle Chester continued her hot hitting streak collecting four hits and driving in six runs Thursday to lead the Lady Bombers' to a 15-0 and 12-0 AAAAA-East Conference doubleheader sweep over the Forrest City Lady Mustangs at Keller Park.
The Lady Bombers improve to 8-5 overall and 4-0 in league play. Forrest City falls to 3-13 overall and 1-8 in the league and extend their varsity losing streak to six games.
Forrest City will host Wynne today in a nonconference game at the Sports Complex.
In the first game, Mountain Home scored a run in each of the first two innings but exploded for 13 runs in the bottom of the third inning to claim the victory via the 15-run rule.
Through three innings, Forrest City sent just 11 batters to the plate. Mountain Home sent 16 hitters to the plate in the third inning alone.
Mountain Home had 11 hits in the first game with eight of their nine batters getting at least one hit.
Friend picked up the victory, allowing only one hit -- a single by Forrest City shortstop Kenetra Pendleton.
In the second game, Mountain Home had to use all seven innings to score its 12 runs, but Friend, who pitched both halves of the double header, never let Forrest City get anything going offensively.
Forrest City had four singles in the second game but was unable to get any of the base runners past second base.
Mountain Home pounded out 11 hits.
*The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots pushed the record to 5-1 Thursday by taking a 10-8 win over Brinkley in fast pitch softball.
P-W scored their 10 runs on 10 hits while pitcher Libby Martin held Brinkley to the 8 runs on 8 hits.
Martin, Kara Siler and Fallon Parker led the way by scoring two runs each while Jenny Loewer, Beth Varvil and Natalie Halbert scored single runs.
Parker homered to give her three for the season and drove in three runs.
Martin is the team's leading hitter with a .647 average while Parker is second with a .590 average.
The two lead the team in runs scored with 14 each.
As a team, the Lady Patriots are batting .399 and are averaging 15 runs per game.
P-W hosts Carlisle today.
After struggling in the field early, the Jonesboro Hurricane was able to rally from a five-run deficit Monday for a 15-7 win over Searcy in AAAAA-East baseball action at Woodland Field.
Searcy (4-7, 1-4) was able to jump out to a 7-2 lead early thanks, in part, to four JHS errors. Jonesboro pounded out nine hits in its final two trips to the plate, however, to rally for the win.
The Hurricane (10-4, 5-0) tied the game at 7 on an RBI single through the left side of the infield by Fred Hargett. The base hit plated Trevor Kreis.
Just as importantly, the base hit kept the inning alive, and the Hurricane capitalized with six more runs.
After Kreis gave up a hit and a walk to start the seventh inning, Byrd snared three straight hits in center field to seal the JHS win.
Kreis took the win for JHS after pitching 42/3 innings in relief. He had no earned runs on two hits and three walks and struck out three. He also hit one batter.
In high school softball, Jonesboro swept a AAAAA-East conference
doubleheader, 1-0 and 12-2, over Jacksonville Thursday.
Battling the wind and Marion, Forrest City shot a 159 Thursday, the first time the team has broken 160 in six years.
That equalled a 159-to-177 win over the Marion Patriots at Forrest City Country Club.
"We played well against Marion, a very good golf team," Mustang Coach Tommy Wheetley said. "Especially John Scott Carroll, playing the No. 5 spot for us. He has been a pleasant surprise."
For the second straight match, Forrest City took individual medalist honors as Jake Wade finished with a 38.
On Tuesday, Sawyer Ramsey won the medalist title with a round of 38 against Blytheville.
Ramsey finished with a 40 against Marion. Brian Hacker finished with a 39 while Josh Coleman fired a 42 and Carroll finished with a 46.
In head-to-head play, Forrest City out-shot four of Marion's five varsity players and tied the fifth.
"That's about all you can ask them to do," Wheetley said.
Our two junior varsity players, Doug and T.J. Drake are getting better.
The girls, Paige Poteet, Hannah Cohn and Marie Harris continue to improve, shaving strokes off the scores each match.
The girls lost by nine strokes to Marion Thursday.
Cohn and Poteet each finished Thursday with a 58.
Brittney Augenbaugh, a three-year player for Marion, finished with a 48.
"That's a good round for them since both are involved in other school activities and they don't get to spend as mouch time on the course as some of the guys do," Wheetley said.
Forrest City will play twice next week at Searcy and at Marion.
"That will give us a chance to play other courses," Wheetley said "and we need that. Everything is shooting toward the conference tournament."