VAN BUREN — Logan Morton discovered a way to make history repeat itself on more than one occasion.
The Bentonville junior not only rallied to edge Springdale Har-Ber’s Payton Stumbaugh in the 300-meter hurdles during the 7A-West Conference meet Thursday, but she did it in record fashion for the second time in as many years. Morton used a strong kick near the last hurdle and finished in 45.59 seconds, eclipsing the mark of 45.86 she set in last year’s meet, while Stumbaugh finished in 45.62 seconds.
“I was really excited,” Morton said. “I really didn’t know how the 300 was going to turn out because we had run preliminaries and finals in everything. I was so tired.
“That’s my favorite race, and I knew I had to do good in it.”
Morton also teamed with Alexis Rolle, Taylor Mahone and Jody Knight to break the conference’s 4x100 relay for the second straight year. The Lady Tigers’ time of 48.14 seconds eclipsed the previous mark of 48.43 seconds that Morton helped Bentonville set in last year’s meet.
Those records highlighted another quality outing for Bentonville’s girls, who easily won the conference championship with 175.5 points. The Lady Tigers used their depth and numbers to pull away as Fayetteville was a distant second with 129.5 points, followed by Springdale Har-Ber with 89 and Bryant with 87.
“You take those girls that finish sixth, seventh and eighth, and even those numbers start to add up,” Bentonville coach Randy Ramaker said. “We have a little depth, but we also have a little quality too. If you take those and combine those in the right places, then good things are going to happen.”
On the boys side, Heritage earned its first conference championship with 137 points. Bentonville was a close second with 122 points, followed by Fayetteville with 111.5, Springdale Har-Ber with 101 and Rogers High with 97.
The War Eagles established their early lead with its dominance in the field events as Forrest Johnson cleared 6 feet, 5 inches to lead a 1-4-5-8 finish in the high jump. Meanwhile, Daniel Spickes was a double winner, taking the long jump with a leap of 22-8.25 and clearing 15-6 to win the pole vault.
“I think the kids pretty much competed and did what they were supposed to be doing,” Heritage boys coach Jay Miles said. “We had kids doing some different things than they were doing in the season so we could have some options going into state.
“Everybody who competed in their events did what they were capable of doing and, in some instances, exceeded what they were capable of doing. They were able to set some PRs and take some big steps out there.”
Stumbaugh, who had earlier reset her conference meet record in the 100 hurdles and won the 100 in earlier races, found a little retribution in the 200 as she held off Knight. Stumbaugh finished in 25.30 seconds while Knight — whose preliminary time of 25.13 surpassed the conference meet record of 25.23 — finished in 25.47.
Three other records were snapped in the meet, including the 800. Fayetteville’s Amanda Agana held off Rogers High’s Maggie Montoya and won the race in 2 minutes, 15.01 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 2:17.11 set by Van Buren’s Erin Gatling in 2007.
Montoya blew away the 1,600 record when she finished the race in 4:56.28, with the previous mark being 5:10.94 by Fayetteville’s Amy Marx in 1989. She then broke one of the older meet records when she completed the 3,200 in 11:03.75, with the previous mark being 11:11.31 by Fort Smith Southside’s Allison Welk in 1982.
“I like the 1,600 better because I almost ran a PR on a windy day and I really didn’t too good,” Montoya said. “I was just glad I was able to do that. The 3,200, I still need to work on my focus, but the 1,600 was a good relief to do.”