MOUNTAIN HOME --Some say that track and field is a dying sport?
Try telling that to Jonesboro High School.
The Jonesboro boys and girls' track teams came very close to a clean sweep at the AAAAA-East conference track meet as the Jonesboro Lady Hurricane captured their first conference title since 1998.
The Jonesboro boys finished second, just missing its first title since 1979.
The Lady Hurricane blew away the rest of the field, putting up 165 points to finish first.
Cabot provided Jonesboro's closest competition, finishing second with 136 1/2 points while three-time defending champion West Memphis was well back of the leaders in third place at 83 1/2 points.
Mountain Home finished fourth in the team competition while the Forrest City Lady Mustangs finished fifth with 22 points.
Forrest City sprinter Jessica Perkins ran second in the 100-meter run and won the 200-meter run. Perkins was fifth in the long jump.
In the boys' division, Cabot and Jonesboro switched places with the Panthers pulling away in the final four events to win the conference crown while Jonesboro took second.
Cabot closed the meet with 130 1/4 points followed by Jonesboro in second with 112 and West Memphis in third with 105 3/4.
Mountain Home held on to take fourth while Jacksonville edged out Forrest City for fifth.
The Mustangs finished with 29 points.
In individual competition, Forrest City sprinter Daniel Echols won the 100-meter run in a time of 11.23; finishing ahead of Jacksonville's T.J. Lewis, who had a time of 11.40.
Forrest City's Kelton Hamlin ran fifth in the 400-meter run while Kerry Perkins finished sixth.
In the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Forrest City's Augustus Haggins was third in a time of 42.76.
In the mile relay, Forrest City ran second behind first place Cabot and in the two-mile relay, Forrest City ran fifth.
Everything went exactly as planned for the Lady Hurricane in winning the conference meet.
They held a 15 1/2 point lead after Monday's field events and prelims as Allison Taylor won both the shot put and discus events to lead a strong start.
Sophomore sprinter and hurdler Katya Kostetskaya scorched the field for four first-place finishes to earn the meet's female high-point athlete award with a total of 50 points.
Kostetskaya won the 100-meter dash, 800-meter run, 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and the long jump.
On the meet's final day, the Lady Hurricane scored 40 points by Kostetskaya alone.
She won the 100-meter run in 12.3 seconds and the 800 in 2:24.43. In the hurdle events, Kostetskaya took the 100 in 15.07 seconds and the 300 in 45.84 seconds.
The Lady Hurricane received a solid performance from sophomore Alisa Stanback, who entered the meet with the eighth-best time in the 200 dash but ran the event in 27.36 seconds to finish third. Stanback also blitzed the field in the 300 hurdles, finishing second to her teammate at 51.92 seconds.
Mullally also provided crucial points for JHS, finishing third in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 13:40.14 and sixth in the 1,600 in a time of 6:07.97.
Jonesboro junior Jackie Gilbert took fifth in the 400 (1:05.88) while junior Ashley Garcia was fifth in the 100 hurdles (17.86) and 300 hurdles (58.42) to provide support.
All three of Jonesboro's relay teams finished fourth or better, helping to secure spots at next week's state meet and push the Lady Hurricane to the district title.
On Monday, Taylor threw the shot put 36-0 to win the event and the discus 102-21/2 to win that event while Kostetskaya jumped 17-91/4 to win the long jump.
The Lady Hurricane also got strong production from Katie Stripling, who finished second in the high jump (5-2); Ellen Duke, who took third in the pole vault (8-6); and Polina Korobova, who was fourth in the long jump (14-7 1/4) and second in the triple jump (32-2).
Jonesboro'sKara Taylor finished fourth in the triple jump (29-11 1/2), Karess Winston was third in the shot put (33-5), Jasmine Webb was fifth in the discus (84-4) and shot put (28-4) while Tiffany Barker finished third in the discus (95-1 1/2) and sixth in the shot put (28-0).
In the boys' meet, JHS senior Chucky Jones won the 400-meter dash in a time of 51.60 seconds and placed fourth in the 800 (2:05.41) while distance runner Glenn Ritter finished second in the 800 (2:03.61), second in the 1,600 (4:38.5) and fourth in the 3,200 to lead the Hurricane to second place overall.
Jonesboro began the day 24 1/4 points back of first-place Cabot, but managed to trim the margin by just six points in finishing as the district runner-up.
Jonesboro got some added help from Jan Walton, who finished fourth in the 110 hurdles (17.28) and fifth in the 300 hurdles (43.17) and junior John Fullington, who took third in the 400 (52.56) and finished fifth in the 200 (23.60).
Sophomore Ryan Williams grabbed fifth in the 100 (11.53) and Perry Walker was fifth in the 800 (2:07.05) while sophomore Chris Hall placed sixth in the 1,600 and sophomore Erik Guzman was sixth in the 110 hurdles.
Jonesboro's two-mile relay team won its event with a time of 8:17.84 while the mile relay team finished fourth (3:34.34) and the 400 relay team took third (44.75).
All it took was one afternoon for all four baseball teams from the AAAAA-East Conference to go down for the count.
Jonesboro, Cabot, Jacksonville and Mountain Home all played their final game. Offensively, the four East teams scored a combined five runs.
Pine Bluff beat Russellville 1-0 Saturday on a Keenan McCoy single in the seventh inning in the Class AAAAA State Tournament at DeJanis Memorial Field.
Russellville pitcher Landon Leach allowed just one hit and had retired 16 consecutive hitters entering the seventh.
Russellville (19-7) put the leadoff batter on in each of the last four innings.
In other state play Saturday, Justin Moring's first inning two-run home run gave Fayetteville starting pitcher Rick Elliott all the cushion he would need as Fayetteville hammered out a 7-2 first-round win over Watson Chapel.
The Bulldogs broke the game open in the sixth with four runs.
Richard O'Brien made his first pitching start of the season and the Little Rock Catholic High Rockets got their first state tournament victory since 1989 with a 5-3 win over Jonesboro.
The Hurricane (21-8) got a two-run home run from Andy Bettis in the sixth inning and a home run from Eric Layne in the seventh.
Bentonville took down North Little Rock 11-6 while Texarkana eliminated top-seeded Mountain Home 8-1.
Springdale advanced to second-round play with an 8-2 win over Bryant.
Conway downed the Cabot Panthers 4-1 as freshman Brandon Solberg had nine strikeouts and allowed only three hits in five innings.
The Benton Panthers jumped on the Jacksonville Red Devils for nine runs in the third inning, and ousted the RedDevils 12-0 in five innings.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
BROCKWELL -- And Benton Harmony-Grove still has not given up a run in postseason.
Saturday, in their first-round game against Palestine-Wheatley at the Class AA Fast Pitch Softball State Tournament in Brockwell, the defending AA state champs took a 10-0 win over the Lady Patriots.
It was the the third 10-0 victory in five postseason games for BHG.
For Palestine-Wheatley, the loss meant the end to a solid season as the team finished 12-6 with second place finishes in the district and regional tournaments.
In other games played Saturday at Brockwell, freshman pitcher Jessica Hinton was more than enough as the Pea Ridge Lady Blackhawks stunned the Newark Lady Kangaroos 11-1 while Conway St. Joseph ousted Murfreesboro 9-6, Elkins eliminated Arkansas Baptist 15-0, Foreman shut out Union 5-0 and Gillett defeated Sloan-Hendrix 11-1.
Pea Ridge returns to action today to face Benton Harmony Grove at 3:45 p.m. while Wonderview, given a bye into today's round will face Foreman at 2 p.m.
Woodlawn, which lost to BHG in last year's finals, will play for the first time today after receiving a first-round bye and will battle Elkins at 5:30 p.m.
Gillett, eliminated by Woodlawn a year ago, will face Conway St. Joseph at 7:15 p.m.
*Monticello scored twice in the bottom of the seventh and once in the eighth to rally for a 5-4 victory over Wynne.
The Lady Yellowjackets (15-13) led the AAAA-Southeast champions 4-2 going into the bottom of the seventh, but Monticello tied it with a pair of unearned runs and won it in the eighth.
Wynne, the No. 4 seed from the AAAA-East, scored three times in the top of seventh using Jena Gracey's two-run single. Gracey drove in three of Wynne's four runs, while Ali Imboden and Amber Carter added two hits apiece.
Jessica Stepp was the losing pitcher, allowing five runs (three) earned on nine hits. She struck out two and walked four over 72/3 innings.