By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CONWAY -- The Forrest City Cross Country team ran their first meet of the season Saturday at Hendrix College in Conway.
While head coach Lewis Etheridge said the team's finishing times were "about what I expected for the first meet," the team has some work to do.
In its third season, the program has 10 runners -- eight girls and two boys. On Saturday, however, Etheridge had just four girls and two boys at the Orange Crush Invitational. Only one -- junior Krystal Long -- had past experience. Long has been with the program since the beginning.
Freshman Randi Gibson, sophomores Randal Ross, Leigh Anna Taylor and junior Betsy Stone could not make the trip.
That left the girls' one person short of being able to qualify as a team.
"You have to have five running to be a team," Etheridge said.
Freshmen newcomers Melanie Cook, Alyssa Aldridge and Keri Shepherd ran with Long and it was Cook with the top individual time for Forrest City, completing the 2.5-mile course in 26 minutes and eight seconds. Aldridge was second for the team in a time of 26:26 while Long crossed the finish line in 26:30 and Shepherd's time as an even 29 minutes.
Mount St. Mary's won the girls' team title as Ashley Williams completed the course in 14:33.
Both Mustang boys are first-timers to the sport -- sophomores Zack Jones and Thomas Broussard. Jones finished in 24:05 while Broussard's time was 26;26 in the 3-mile course set for the boys.
DeQueen won the boys' team title while Conway's Eric Harris finished the course in 16:12.
"We have to get our times below 20 minutes to be competitive," Etheridge said. "But I'm sticking with my original goal, to finish in the top 15 at the state meet this year."
Forrest City will run next at Harding in Searcy on Saturday, Oct. 4.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Both the Forrest City seventh and eighth-grade Mustang football teams scored first against West Memphis West Tuesday night.
Neither team was able to hang on for a win.
West defeated the seventh-grade Mustangs 24-12 and handed the eighth-graders a 20-14 setback.
The Forrest City seventh-graders (1-2) led 6-0 at the half against West at Sam Smith Stadium, after Antonio Mitchell scored early in the game.
Mitchell's 76-yard scoring run with 2:36 to play in the third quarter was called back on a clipping penalty. The Mustangs fumbled on the next play and West recovered.
With two minutes left, West grabbed an 8-6 lead with a 58-yard touchdown run and the two-point play. West scored again before the quarter ended to make it 16-6 before Forrest City's Mario Smith cut the WMemphis lead to 16-12 with a scoring run midway through the fourth quarter.
West added a final touchdown late in the game. In the eighth-grade game, Jeffrey Vaughn put Forrest City on top 6-0, scoring on the second play of the game.
West used a 22-yard touchdown pass and two-point play to take an 8-6 lead in the first and went on to lead 14-6 at the half.
West added a third quarter touchdown to push their advantage to 20-6 before Forrest City's Cameron Norris scored and Xavier Jones added the two point play.
The Mustangs had the final possession but needed to cover more than 70 yards with no timeouts in less than a minute as West held on for the 20-14 victory.