By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WYNNE -- The Blytheville senior girls track team took first Thursday at the Wynne Yellow Jacket Relays.
Also on Thursday, the Jonesboro Lady Hurricane won the Eagle Relays held at Greene County Tech in Paragould.
In the combined senior boys/senior girls meet, the Forrest City Mustangs ran fourth while Jonesboro made it a clean sweep by winning the boys' competition.
The Mustangs will run today at the Patriot Relays in Marion and at the Paul Hoffman Relays in Jonesboro on Thursday.
In the first track meet of the season for Forrest City, the Lady Mustangs ran third at the event.
All three teams will return to action Tuesday at the Lady Hurricane Relays in Jonesboro.
Blytheville's Sossity Lewis took first in the high jump with a 4-8, while teammate Kenya Moore was first in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:50.
Patricia Shade was third in the long jump with a 15-1, while Moore was fifth with a 14.
Shunquetta Shade took second in the 800-meter run with a time of 3:10.
Shade was second in the 200-meter, while Serena Chew took fifth in the event.
Lewis was second in the 100-meter hurdles with an 18.41. Patricia Shade took second in the 100-meter dash with a 13.03, while Shunquetta Shade was sixth with a 13.53.
Lewis was third in the 300-meter hurdles with a 56.58.
Blytheville took second in both the 4X400 and 4X1600 relays.
The AAAAA-East Conference Meet will be run on Saturday, May 8, at Cabot's Panther Stadium.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Weather permitting, the Forrest City Lady Mustangs will host Cabot today in fast-pitch softball action at the Sports Complex.
With the AAAAA-East Conference regular season winding down, each game is critical for those teams looking for a postseason berth in the Class AAAAA State Tournament.
The state tournament is scheduled to begin Saturday, May 1, at Jacksonville and Sylvan Hills.
At 3-8 in the league, the Lady Mustangs are in fifth place while Cabot, West Memphis and Jacksonville are all tied with identical 9-1 conference records.
The Lady Mustangs have Jonesboro and West Memphis remaining on their schedule following today's game against Cabot.
Cabot suffered its first conference loss of the season on Friday, losing to West Memphis 5-2. That left Cabot and West Memphis with 9-1 league records and tied for the league's top spot.
Also Friday, Jacksonville swept Mountain Home in a doubleheader played at Jacksonville, winning 3-0 and 3-0 to create a three-way logjam as the Lady Red Devils pushed the conference mark to 9-1.
Jacksonville still has to play West Memphis in a varsity doubleheader Tuesday.
Cabot has their work cut out for them. Following today's varsity-junior varsity game at Forrest City, the Lady Panthers will face Searcy Tuesday, Jacksonville Wednesday and Jonesboro Thursday to close out the regular season.
In Class AA softball action last Thursday, Cross County defeated the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots 12-4.
Palestine-Wheatley will host Hughes today in a conference doubleheader beginning at 3:30 p.m.
A P-W sweep would give the Lady Patriots second place in the conference as well as the No. 2 seed into the district tournament. P-W has already qualified for the upcoming Class AA Region 3 Tournament to be played at Rector.
The 3AA South district tournament will be played Tuesday at Cross County.
P-W (2-4 overall, 2-2) is scheduled to play at 11 a.m., against either Hughes or Marked Tree. A win over either team will put the Lady Patriots into the tournament finals scheduled for later Tuesday afternoon.
Cross County is the No. 1 seed into Tuesday's district.
*Jonesboro couldn't bring home Chelsey Reeves from third base in the top of the seventh inning, allowing Batesville to escape with a 1-0 victory Friday in high school softball.
Reeves doubled with no outs, and was moved to third base when Katie Osment hit into a fielder's choice. But the next two batters were retired as Jonesboro fell to 3-13.
Amanda Berry took the loss, despite giving up just three hits.
*Brittney Heath went 4-for-4 with two RBIs and Niki Wicker drove in four runs as Nettleton rolled past Searcy 13-3 late Friday in high school softball at Lady Raider Field.
Lyndsey McVay earned the victory, striking out three in the five-inning complete game.
Nikki Sietz added three RBIs for the Lady Raiders (16-7), which also won the junior varsity game 4-2.
*Mallory Wilson notched a pair of victories as Rivercrest slugged four home runs in the first game and scored 17 runs in the second to win the Chickasaw Classic high school softball tournament Saturday.
Rivercrest (22-4) defeated South Pemiscot, Mo. 11-1 and then disposed of Blytheville in the championship game.
*The Calvary Christian Lady Eagles will play their final regular season game on Tuesday (April 20) when the team travels to Macon Road.
The doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The East Arkansas Ridgerunners rolled through the 8-team bracket to win the 8-Under Coach-Pitch title at the Sports Authority Challenge Cup played this past weekend at Southaven, Miss.
The Ridgerunners, based out of Wynne, defeated the Delta Dodgers from Greenville, Miss., 21-15 in Sunday's championship game.
The team reached the finals by turning back the New Albany Bulldogs 12-8 on Friday and then taking Saturday victories over the DeSoto Cardinals and the North Mississippi Mustangs. The Ridgerunners defeated Hollis Roofing Hammers from Columbus, Miss., in the semifinals of the Championship Round.
The team will play in the upcoming Charlie Respess Memorial Tournament, April 30-May2, at Snowden Grove.
In other games at the Challenge Cup, the Memphis Travelers won the 9-under title by defeating the Memphis Tigers 4-1 and the Bartlettt Redbirds won the 11-under title by defeating the Memphis Tigers 14-4.
The Colt Delta Storm finished 0-3 in the 11-under division losing to Grenada, Miss., the Memphis Tigers and the Germantown Giants.
The Germantown Giants won the 12-under title defeating the Collierville Rebels 12-1 in that age division.
Arkansas Concrete of Forrest City, finished 2-2 in the 13-under bracket, defeating the Memphis Saints 13-4 on Friday and the Memphis Travelers 7-0 Saturday.
The team fell to the Batesville, Miss. Northwest Rebels 9-1 on Saturday but qualified for the Silver consolation championship bracket where they lost to the Arkansas Diamonds from Sherwood 18-5.
Team Memphis defeated the Germantown Giants in the championship game. Sixteen teams participated in the 13-under age division.
The Arkansas Angels won the 17-under title this past weekend in AAU tournament action at Houston, Texas.
The team includes Palestine-Wheatley sophomore Jesse Adams, who averaged five points per game and two rebounds and Kevin Brown from Hughes. Brown also played with the 16-under Angels, a team that reached the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The 17-under Angels defeated the Houston Elite in the title game.
Palestine-Wheatley Coach Terry Farmer helps coach the team.
Other area atheletes playing with the Angels include Stephon Weaver, Marcus Britt, Ben White and Chris tripp, all of Forrest City; Kendrick Smith and Brown of Hughes and Adams, Rafael Williams and Rodrick Allen of Palestine-Wheatley.
Rusty Wallace ended his 105-race winless streak Sunday, outrunning Bobby Labonte over the final 30 laps to win the Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Wallace, whose last victory came on April 29, 2001, at California
Speedway, pulled away on a restart with 38 laps left as the cars
behind him battled for position. He held on after Labonte emerged
from the pack and tried to chase him down.
The Calvary Christian Eagles ended their 2004 regular baseball season Friday by dropping a doubleheader to Memphis Home School at the Sports Complex.
Seth Smith scored twice in Calvary's 19-2 loss in game 1.Memphis
won the nightcap 12-0.
The Forrest City American Legion program will hold team tryouts on Saturday, April 24, at 10 a.m., at the Sports Complex.
The tryouts are open to players ages 14-19 who live in Forrest City, Marianna and Palestine-Wheatley.
Brett Bullard returns to coach the American Legion team for the second straight season.