By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JONESBORO -- A year ago, the Forrest City Junior Mustangs and Junior Lady Mustangs finished second at the AAAAA-East District Meet.
A repeat of that effort for Coach Rich Trail's Junior Mustangs today would be fine with the coach, but he isn't ready to settle for runner-up.
"I like our chances," Trail said. "We have the talent to win the district title. We just have to use it to our advantage."
Trail says that his Junior Mustangs won several events last year but finished second to Jonesboro Annie Camp.
"The difference wasn't in the number of first place finishes, it was in the number of top six finishers in each event," Trail offered. "Annie Camp had multiple place finishes in most of the events while we had only one and those extra points for finishing second through sixth add up and can make the difference in winning a meet or being the runner-up. Today, we have to have more multiple finishes."
Today's district meet is only the fifth meet of the year for Forrest City.
While Trail would have liked to have had a couple of more meets on the schedule, he doesn't think the shortened schedule will hinder today's effort.
"There just wasn't that many meets to go to this year or at least that's the way it seemed," Trail said. "And then of course, West Memphis and West Helena were having their tracks resurfaced which took away two more potential meets. We did the best with the meets we had."
Trail says this make up of the Junior Mustang team this year includes several eighth-graders, who have contributed in a mighty way this season.
"Our eighth-graders got got a lot of experience this season and that will help us next year when they come back as freshman," Trail said.
Trail singled out a few of his track athletes to watch today -- Justin Ross, who has the talent to put up winning numbers in both the long jump and the high jump.
Mario Sims has the talent to give the Junior Mustangs a boost in the discus while Kyle Houston leads a group of talented distance runners and sprinters.
"I think we have a shot at the top three, that's for sure," Trail said. "In the meets this year which have included some of the conference teams, we have been right there with them in the final standings."
Today's district meet will be held at Cooksey-Johns Field in Jonesboro and is scheduled to begin at about 3:30 p.m.
Like the junior boys, the Junior Lady Mustangs finished second a year ago in district, thanks to the high point effort of then-freshman LeJoy Walker.
Walker has graduated to the high school team leaving the junior high girls trying to fill gap.
At the recent Lady Hurricane Relays, the Junior Lady Mustangs did not place in the final team standings, Annie Camp ran to the first-place win and are favored in today's district meet.
RECTOR -- In the district tournament championship game, Rector scored a 7-1 win over Riverside.
Wednesday afternoon, in the finals of the Class AA region 4 tournament at Rector, it was Riversides turn.
Riverside built a seven-run lead Wednesday and held on to beat Rector 10-8.
Both teams advance to the Class AA State Tournsament
The Lady Rebels (12-11) scored two runs in the first inning, one in the second, two in the third, one in the fourth and four in the fifth to build a 10-3 lead.
Rector (17-4) scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, then scored three in the seventh to set the final score.
Samantha Dunigan pitched all seven innings and was 2-for-4 for Riverside, which had lost three previous games against Rector. Tiffany Treece was 2-for-3 while Jesse Mann was 2-for-5.
*Shannon Keller's two-run, two-out single provided the margin of victory in the seventh inning Wednesday as Weiner defeated Evening Shade 10-8 in the Class A Region 4 softball championship game.
Keller's single broke an 8-8 tie. Evening Shade loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but Weiner turned a double play on a ground ball to shortstop.
Phenix Butler was the winning pitcher for Weiner, striking out 11 batters.
Both teams advance to the state tournament at Pine Bluff.
*Newark erased a three-run deficit Wednesday to beat Salem 4-3 in the Class AA Region 3 softball championship game.
Salem (16-4) scored two runs in the first inning and added one in the third for a 3-0 lead. Newark tied the score with three runs in the fourth and took the lead in the fifth.
*Jonesboro's Amanda Berry earned the win against Doniphan, Mo., Wednesday as she struck out eight batters, allowed two runs on three hits and one walk in Jonesboro's 7-2 softball win.
Danielle Birdsong went 2-for-4, Katie Osment drove in three runs and Chelsea Reeves had two runs batted in for the Lady Hurricane (6-15).
One of Searcy's season goals -- a conference championship -- has been attained by the baseball team.
The road to the next and bigger goal begins Saturday in Benton in the Class AAAAA state baseball touranment.
The Lions clinched a share of the AAAAA-East title and its No. 1 seeding in the state tournament on Monday, although it took them one game longer than hoped to do it.
After dropping a 4-3 decision in the opener of the final conference doubleheader at Blytheville, the Lions roared back in the second game for a 9-0 win.
That left Searcy at 12-2 in conference play along with Jonesboro, which swept third-place Mountain Home, but the Lions got the higher state tournament seeding by virtue of its sweep three weeks ago over the Hurricane.
The Lions will play Saturday at 5 p.m., against an opponent from the AAAAA-West Conference.
Regardless of the opponent, Searcy coach Clay McCammon knows his team must play its best baseball of the year starting with that first-round game.
"The state tournament is not very forgiving. If you do not play your best game, there may not be another game," McCammon said about the single-elimination tourney that will finish with two teams playing for the state championship at the University of Arkansas' Baum Stadium on May 8.
Blytheville, in the final season at the Class AAAAA level, is the No. 4 seed from the AAAAA-East. It is the first state tournament berth for the Chicks since 1992. Mountain Home is No. 3 while Jonesboro carries the No. 2 seed.