Lady Tigers, Mountaineers finish on top
Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/Sports/61578/
VAN BUREN —Distance crews from Benton County did their jobs Tuesday night — but only after the Rogers boys and Bentonville girls got big points from their field events and sprints to help them run away with 7 A-West Conference track titles on Tuesday.
The Lady Tigers got an early boost from the field events and never looked back on the way to their second straight league title.
The boys’ division went back and forth between Rogers and Fayetteville all day at the Van Buren Track Complex, but the Mounties moved ahead for good after getting four runners in the top five of the 3, 200-meter run.
The Mounties’ team of Cameron Efurd, Casey Caton, Tyler Rose and Austin Young tacked on a win in the 1, 600-meter relay — their first win all year — to seal their first league title since 1997.
The Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs each finished second.
The Fayetteville and Bentonville girls started the day tied with Fort Smith Southside, but the Lady Tigers jumped ahead early after three scored in the shot put — Samantha Devlin (second ), Ashleigh Eddelbuttel (fourth ) and Christina Resch fifth — and Ariel took fifth in the high jump. “ Our shot putters came out and set a pretty dang good tone and that was a huge boost for us, ” Lady Tigers coach Randy Ramaker said.
Jeanna Sheppard had a win in the 100-meter hurdles to
start the running events
and Kayla Middlebrook (400 ) and Katie Dalton (1, 600 and 3, 200 ) added wins.
Middlebrook was also third in the 100 and second in the 200 while Sheppard is now qualified for the state tournament in four individual events.
Abigail Sandusky scored points and qualified in both hurdles while distance runners Mackenzie Bloom (1, 600
and 3, 200 ), Kayla Horton (800 ), Shannon Sullivan (800 and 1, 600 ) and Lenna Sanz (3, 200 ) all advanced to the state meet — set for next week at the University of Arkansas. The Mounties stayed close during the early part of the meet as Michael Tibbs scored in three of his four events Tuesday. Tibbs won the discus and the 110-meter hurdles and was second in the pole vault.
Dexter Kemmet (third ) and Young (fourth ) added big points in the hurdles and Young later won the 300-meter hurdles.
The Mounties took a brief lead after Efurd, Rose, Taylor Surly and Ben Peterson went 2-3-4-6 in the 800.
The 200 pushed Fayetteville ahead by four points but Aaron Hamilton, Forrest Roth, Jordan Falls and Jeremiah Fleeman finished in order behind Southside’s Caleb Hanson.
“ You had better know where you’re bread is buttered, ” Mounties coach Jay Miles said. “ Those (distance ) guys were amazing. ”
Young then passed two runners on the homestretch during his anchor leg of the relay to cap the night.
The Tigers, who finished fifth, will send two relay teams to the state meet.
Matt Zarse, Chase Baggett, Austin McCullum and Nathan Hughes were second in the 400-meter relay while Stephon Ferriel, Ryan Tiemeyer, McCullum and Steele Sikes were third in the 1, 600-meter relay.
Ferriel repeated as conference champ in the 800 and Ethan Sandusky was third in the pole vault.
Sikes (400 ), Tiemeyer (400 ), Johnathon Mortenson (discus ), Baggett (300-meter hurdles ) and McCullum (200 ) also earned trips to the state meet in individual events.
The Rogers Lady Mounties, who finished fifth, also got lots of points from its distance runners.
Natalia Guerreo took second in the 1, 600 and third in the 800 and 3, 200 while Courtney Efurd was fifth in the 800 and sixth in the 1, 600.
Brittany McClain scored in both hurdles and tied for third in the high jump with teammate Kiley Young.