By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JONESBORO -- The track was a little slippery and the infield at Cooksey-Johns Stadium was downright soggy, following two days of heavy rains, but not enough to hold off the annual Paul Hoffman Relays.
Close to 20 boys teams in both the junior high and senior high divisions of the combined meet, battled for almost six hours -- finishing just before a line of strong thunderstorms dumped yet more water on Jonesboro.
"Just before the meet got started, the Jonesboro athletic director told us we had just about six hours to run the meet," said Forrest City Junior High Coach Rich Trail. "He had been watching the radar and he was close to being right on the money. Just as soon as we got on the bus, it started raining. maybe he (the AD) missed his calling."
For the favored Jonesboro Hurricane team, the weather or threat of weather wasn't a facor.
Jonesboro successfully defended their home turf and last year's title with a convincing victory Thursday.
The Hurricane track team produced a new meet record in the 3,200-meter run and a new school record in the triple jump and scored 126 points to take first.
Cabot finished second, a distant with 91-1/2 points.
West Memphis finished third in the final point totals with 87 while Osceola was fourth with 84 and Marion was fifth at 45. Heber Springs was sixth at 42 followed by Mountain Home (35), Newport (32) and Forrest City (25) while Rivercrest rounded out the top 10 with 18 points.
Forrest City had a first in the 400-meter run when sophomore Eric Walker blistered the field with a winning time of 51.6, just off the Hoffman record of 49.2.
Walker finished eighth in the long jump and fourth in the 100-meter run. Walker also ran one of the legs with the 400 and 800-meter relay teams which included Kenneth Jordan, Chris Barrett, Brian Smith and Justin Jones.
Jones ran sixth in the 300-meter hurdles.
Forrest City was third in the 800-meter relay.
Jonesboro's Avery Taylor set a school and meet record in the triple jump with a leap of 45 feet 4-1/2 inches breaking his own record of 44 feet which he set Monday at the Patriot Relays in Marion. Taylor also finished second in the long jump with a distance of 21 feet 10-1/2 inches.
Joneboro's Glenn Ritter finished second in the 800-meter run in 2:02.42 and second in the 1,600 with a time of 4:40.19.
Forrest City sophomore Chris Scott ran second in his heat for the 800 meter run.
"Chris has shown great improvement this season," said Mustang Coach Clark McBride.
Jonesboro won the two-mile relay, posting a meet record time of 8:14.88, cutting 11 seconds off its fastest time this year. Ritter finished sixth in the 3,200 meter run.
Newport's Julius Pruitt earned the high-point award with 25.25 points. Pruitt was fourth in the long jump, seventh in the triple jump, second in the 100, second in the 110 hurdles, and ran legs on Newport's third-place 4x100 relay team and fifth-place 4x400 relay team.
West Memphis' Sonny Weems cleared an event-record 6-10 to win the high jump, plus won the long jump with a leap of 22-5 1/2.
In the junior high meet, MacArthur scored 97 points to claim first place as Rivercrest finished 19 points back.
The Cyclones had five first-place finishes.
MacArthur's Roosevelt Griffin won the 110 intermediate hurdles (16.91) while Jeremy Thomas won the high jump (5-8) and Dominique Coleman took the 400 dash in 55.15 seconds. Josh Chalk placed second in the high jump (5-8) and third in the triple jump (33-5) for the Cyclones.
Marion finished third with 64 points followed by Osceola with fourth, Wynne fifth, Annie Camp sixth, Heber Springs seventh, Forrest City eighth with 31 points, Greene County Tech ninth and Nettleton 10th.
Forrest City finished sixth in the two-mile relay behind first place Jonesboro Annie Camp and second-place Marion using Rylan Nimocks, Kyle Houston, Nicko Walker and Justin Cochran. The same four Junior Mustangs ran fifth in the 400-meter relay.
Wynne's Romeo Harper finished sixth in the long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 4 inches while Walker was 10th.Rivercrest's Danton Jackson won the event with a leap of 19 feet, 11 inches.
Marion's Darcell Johnson won the shot with a throw of 44 feet, 3 inches while Forrest City's Jeremy Golatt finished 16th.
Justin Ross ran fifth in the 110-intermediate hurdles and John Washington ran sixth. Houston ran third in the mile finishing with a time of 4:58, just eight seconds behind first place MacArthur.
Kendall Rucker was fourth in the 400-meter run and Mario Sims placed third in the discus with a throw of 128 feet behind Heber Springs and Paragould.
Osceola's Cam Baker was the junior high high-point award winner with 42-1/2 points. Baker won the 100 dash, 200 dash and ran a leg on the winning 4x100 relay team.
The AAAAA-East Conference Meet will be Thursday, April 29, at Jonesboro.
State tournament berths are on the line this weekend as high school baseball and softball teams begin regional tournament play.
Locally, the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots, the Hughes Lady Blue Devils and the Cross County Lady Thunderbirds will open play Saturday at the Class AA Region 4 Tournament at Rector.
In the Class AA regionals, Salem and Newark are the top two seeds for the Region 3 tournament at Brockwell while Rector and Cross County are the top two seeds in the Region 4 tourney at Rector.
The Lady Patriots lost to Cross County Tuesday in the finals of the 3AA South district tournament.
P-W will face Bay Saturday at 1:45 p.m. while Cross County gets Crowley's Ridge Academy at 3:30 p.m. Hughes draws Riverside in the final game of the day.
The winners return on Monday for the semifinal round.
The top two teams will advance to the Class AA state tournament at Harrison.
In other high school softball action, the Forrest City Lady Mustangs will close out their season on Tuesday when they host West Memphis.
On the baseball side, Gosnell attempts to capture back-to-back regional titles after rolling through the 3AAA-South regular season and district tournament unbeaten.
The Pirates (23-5) shut out Rivercrest 12-0 in the district finals and will take on either Cave City or Pocahontas Saturday at noon in the Region 2 tournament at Newport.
Corning (17-7) is the top seed from the 3AAA-North after outlasting Westside 15-5 in the district finals and will face either Rivercrest or Heber Springs winner Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a state tournament berth on the line.
In regional action today, Cave City was scheduled to go against Pocahontas while Westside takes on Manila, which is making its first regional appearance in a decade. Osceola plays Highland while Rivercrest plays Heber Springs.
Westside (20-13) closed the season strong before allowing an 11-run inning in the loss to Corning. The Warriors must defeat Manila and 2AAA runner-up Riverview to nail down a state playoff berth.
The top four teams from the region advance to the state tournament in Ashdown, May 1-6.
Buffalo Island Central hosts the Region 4 Class AA tournament in Monette while Izard County Consolidated will host both the Region 3 tournament this weekend and the Class AA state tournament on May 1-6.
The Region 4 tournament has four of the area's top teams but just two will make it to state. Walnut Ridge and BIC enter as the top two seeds from the 3AA-North while Marked Tree upset Bay in the finals of the district tournament to earn the top seed from the 3AA-South.
Action starts Saturday at Monette with Walnut Ridge taking on Riverside at noon. BIC then plays Cross County at 2:30 p.m., Marked Tree plays Rector at 5 and Bay battles Marmaduke at 7:30.
In the Region 3 tournament at ICC, Sloan-Hendrix is the top seed from the 2AA-North after topping Melbourne in the district finals while Bradford defeated Tuckerman to earn the number one seed from the 2AA-East.
All games at Brockwell begin Saturday with Sloan-Hendrix taking on White County Central at noon, Tuckerman plays Calico Rock at 2:30 p.m., Bradford battles Salem at 5 and Melbourne plays Midland at 7:30.
The winner and runner-up from each AA region advance to the state tournament at ICC.
In Class A, Lynn is the top seed from the 3A while Armorel claimed the 2A-South by defeating Concord in the district finals.
OSCEOLA -- The Extreme Northeast Arkansas Battle of the Senior Basketball Stars benefit all-star game has been switched to 3 p.m. on May 8 at the Osceola High School gymnasium.
A number of area standouts will participate in the game, including East Poinsett County's Marcus Monk, P.J. Lacy and Daniel "Boo" Collins, members of the Class AAA state championship team.
Coaches participating in the event will be Irving Clay of Turrell, Barbara Wilburn of Marked Tree, Buffalo Island Central's Bill Taylor and Len Whitehead of Gosnell.