Pioneers Excel in Field Events

Tori Metheny of Rogers High School throws a discus Thursday, April 4, 2013, at Glenn W. Black Stadium in Siloam Springs during the Panther Relays.

Tori Metheny of Rogers High School throws a discus Thursday, April 4, 2013, at Glenn W. Black Stadium in Siloam Springs during the Panther Relays.

Friday, April 5, 2013

SILOAM SPRINGS — The Gentry boys track team took advantage of the new scoring format Thursday at the Siloam Springs Panther Invitational.

The Pioneers won first place in the small schools division of the track meet, which was split between big schools (Class 6A-7A) and small schools (Class 5A and below).

Gentry scored 148 points to beat out Farmington (117). Gravette won the small school girls division with 110.5 points. Bentonville won the big schools boys division with 169 points, while Rogers scored a meet high 180 points in the big schools girls division.

Gentry coach Daniel Ramsey said the new format was a big factor in the Pioneers even attending Thursday’s meet.

“It was nice that they did that,” Ramsey said. “We were looking at going to a meet in Greenwood, but when I heard they were going to split this meet into big schools and small schools, I decided to come here.”

Gentry’s Kevin Parish scored the most points individually with 50 points.

Parish won the 100- and 200-meter dash races. He also finished first in the long jump (20-0), triple jump (39-08) and finished second in the pole vault (10-06) to teammate Jarod Cousins, who won the event at 11-06.

Cousins also won the discus with a throw of 130-02.

“We spend a lot of time in field events,” Ramsey said.

Shiloh Christian had a pair of first place finishes from both Daniel Evans (1,600 and 3,200) and Kyle Plunkett (110 hurdles, 300 hurdles).

Farmington had four first place finishes in the boys division.

In the large school boys division, Bentonville had three first-place finishes from Leo Wotzak (pole vault), Taylor Chapman (100) and Matt Haven (discus).

Siloam Springs’ Damion Blossom won all the jumps and had 42 points individually, which ranked second behind Parish.

Har-Ber had six first place finishes, including two from Aaron Wellman (110 and 300 hurdles) and one each from Chris Sandoval (3,200), Camerom Camp (800), Josh Frazier (shot put) and the 3,200-meter relay team.

Rogers had seven first-place finishes in the big schools girls division, but the Lady Mounties spread their points out.

Gravette’s Kylee Davis had 30.5 points to lead individually over both girls divisions. Davis finished first in the triple jump at 31-08.

Avery Goode of Shiloh Christian had first place finishes in the 100-, 200 and 400-meter runs and finished with 30 points, along with Har-Ber’s Cheyanne Bright.