PREP TRACK REPORT Van Buren moves 6A-West meet to Friday

The 6A-West Conference track and field championships will have a new format -- and a new day.

The meet, originally scheduled for today, has been pushed back to Friday at Van Buren because of weather concerns. That decision became official around 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to Van Buren track coach Hays Lemley.

"We've been watching the weather for well over a week now," Lemley said. "With the chance of rain anywhere from 40 to 90 percent (today) -- depending on who you're watching -- it just made since to go ahead and move the meet to Friday, where there was 0 percent chance of rain.

"At first, it seemed like (today) was the best day. However, the later it became, the chances of rain were going up. Our athletic director (Randy Loyd) then reached out to the other athletic directors, and they were on board with it. So we made the change."

The first section of field events will begin at 11 a.m., while the second section is scheduled for 1 p.m. The girls 4x800-meter relay is slated for 1 p.m., followed by the boys 4x800 relay, while the other running events won't take place until 4 p.m.

The format is something similar to next week's Class 6A state meet at Lake Hamilton, which will be hosting the Class 5A state meet at the same time.

"The Class 6A state meet will not have prelims ran unless it the event warrants it," Lemley said. "We wanted to try and mimic the state meet format as close as we can. Because the 5A meet will also be there, the field events will be more spread out.

"We also have our new video board, which definitely sets us apart from the other schools that have track-only facilities. Athletes can run their races, then watch the board populate with instant results. We think that is a big deal."

Wilson claims four records

Fiona Wilson's future is in basketball as the Greenland standout signed a national letter of intent to play at Crowder College.

Wilson, however, is still making a splash on the spring sports circuit. She broke meet records in the shot put, discus, 100- and 300-meter hurdles and accounted for 40 of the Lady Pirates' 69 points during the 3A-1 West Conference meet Monday at Mansfield.

"It's really not as weird a combination as it sounds," Greenland coach Brent Jones said. "A good thrower has to be quick and strong, especially in the legs. You don't see it very often, but it's more common with people who participate in the heptathlon."

Wilson broke her personal-best in the shot put by almost 2 feet when she recorded a throw of 37-2 and shattered the previous mark of 31-11.5 set by Holly Griffin of West Fork in 2016. She followed that with a throw of 106-5.25 in the discus and surpassed the previous mark of 101-6 that Griffin set on the same day.

Wilson was far from finished. She broke the meet record in the 100-meter hurdles with her time of 16.69 seconds, smashing the previous mark of 17.86 seconds by Audrey Walker of Mansfield in 2016. Wilson then capped her performance with a win in the 300 hurdles, and her time of 49.66 seconds eclipsed the previous mark of 50.39 set by Walker again in 2016.

"The most impressive was the shot put record," Jones said. "That's where she has made the most improvement. The only other time she had done it was in the heptathlon last year, and this year was the first time she took it seriously. That led to a massive improvement."

Jones said Wilson, who is also a member of Greenland's softball team, will continue to do all four events next week at the Class 3A state meet in Green Forest.

More records fall in Mansfield

Wilson's performance was just a portion of what took place Monday in Mansfield as 14 meet records were broken, including three that were broken by the athletes who previously owned them.

West Fork senior Kendall Hays won the 3,200 in 12 minutes, 52.93 seconds and surpassed the previous mark of 13:13.81 she set as a freshman 3 years ago. Meanwhile, Cedarville's Chloe Morrow won the triple jump at 33-6.25, bettering the jump of 32-5.25 she did last year to set the record.

Hays also helped West Fork set a meet record in the 4x800 relay as she teamed with Nealie DenHerder, Joyce Ferguson and Audrey Alvarado to finish in a time of 10:33.24. The previous mark was 11:14.23 set by Mansfield in 2014.

On the boys side, Elkins' Paxton Burnett rewrote the meet record in the high jump when he cleared 6-3, edging the 6-2 he cleared to set the mark last year. Meanwhile, Cedarville's Kevan Jones took meet records in the discus, where his throw of 45-10.25 knocked off the previous mark of 43-3 set last year by Cedarville's Easton Mongold, and his throw of 124-2.5 in the discus passed the previous mark of 121-6 by Cedarville's Cruz Rhea in 2015.

Other meet records include Waldron's Isaac Villereal in the 110 hurdles (15.77; previous mark 16.79 by Greenland's Brayden Alvarez in 2017), Waldron's Bryson Bailey in the 100 (11.37; previous mark 11.68 by Elkins' Hunter Casebolt in 2015), Gabino Grano in the 200 (23.13; previous mark 23.26 by Casebolt in 2015) and the 4x100 relay team of Levi Hayden, Bailey, Caden Fuller and Gabino (44.44; previous mark 44.97 by Greenland in 2016).

Lady Tigers claim Kansas Relays record

Bentonville High's girls claimed a Kansas Relays meet record in the 4x1,600-meter relay last week.

The team of Emily Robinson, Tori Willis, Elizabeth Heffernan and Lainey Quandt finished with a time of 20 minutes, 59.34 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 21:01.97 set by Francis Howell (Mo.) in 2014. Quandt, the Arkansas signee who earlier this season became only the fourth girl in the state to break the 5-minute barrier in the 1,600, ran her leg in a personal-best 4:58.94.

Rogers High's team of Ali Nachtigal, Hailey Day, Kate Nachtigal and Anna Jeffcoat finished third at 21:24.83. Jeffcoat later finished seventh in the 1,600 (5:05.89).

The Lady Tigers can't turn that into a state record since that event isn't run during state meets, but Bryant Parlin has now challenged the state records in the boys discus.

The Bentonville High senior threw 189 feet, 10 inches on his final attempt to win the event Friday by 8 feet over Adetomiwa Adebawore of North Kansas City, and Parlin would need to match or exceed that performance in either the state meet or the overall Meet of Champs to earn the state records. The Class 6A record is 185 feet set by Jesse Williams of Cabot in 2005, while the state overall record is 187-11 set by Bobby McDaniels of Crossett in 1985.

Parlin followed that by winning the shot put with his final toss of 62-3.

Other performances during the meet included:

• Bentonville's team of Daniel Graham, Dawson Mayberry, Lukas Pabst and Coleman Wilson finished fifth in the boys 4x1,600 relay (18:31.89)

• Rogers' Georgia Brain won her heat and finished fourth in the 100 hurdles (14.94) and finished eighth in the triple jump (36-9.5).

• Rogers' team of the Nachtigal sisters, Day and Jeffcoat finished third in the distance medley relay (12:38.64).

• Bentonville's team of Graham, Devin Dougherty, Colin Conway and Coleman Wilson took sixth in the boys distance medley relay (10:51.22).

• Bentonville's Robinson finished seventh in the girls 800 (2:19.28).

• Springdale Har-Ber's Ethan Carney took sixth in the boys 800 (1:57.46).

• Bentonville's team of Alyssa Baker, Sydney Suggs, Robinson and Quandt took second in the girls sprint medley relay (4:10.45).

At A Glance

THIS WEEK ON THE TRACK

6A-West Conference Championships

WHEN Friday

WHERE Van Buren

SCHEDULE 11 a.m. for girls pole vault, discus and long jump and boys high jump, shot put and triple jump; 1 p.m. for girls high jump, shot put and triple jump and boys pole vault, discus and long jump; 1 p.m. for girls 4x800-meter relay, 1:15 for boys 4x800 relay; 4 p.m. for all other running events.

TEAMS Bentonville High, Bentonville West, Fayetteville, Rogers Heritage, Rogers High, Springdale Har-Ber, Springdale High, Van Buren

6A-Central Conference Championships

WHEN Friday

WHERE Scott Field, Little Rock

SCHEDULE 11 a.m. for girls pole vault, discus and long jump and boys high jump, shot put and triple jump; 1 p.m. for girls high jump, shot put and triple jump and boys pole vault, discus and long jump; 1 p.m. for girls 4x800-meter relay, 1:15 for boys 4x800 relay; 4 p.m. for all other running events.

TEAMS Bryant, Cabot, Conway, Fort Smith Northside, Fort Smith Southside, Little Rock Catholic (boys), Little Rock Central, Mount St. Mary (girls), North Little Rock

5A-West Conference Championships

WHEN Friday

WHERE Vilonia

SCHEDULE 11 a.m. for girls pole vault, discus and long jump and boys high jump, shot put and triple jump; 1 p.m. for girls high jump, shot put and triple jump and boys pole vault, discus and long jump; 1:30 p.m. for 4x800-meter relay; 5:30 p.m. for all other running events.

TEAMS Alma, Beebe, Greenwood, Greenbrier, Little Rock Christian, Russellville, Siloam Springs, Vilonia

Sports on 04/25/2019