Mountaineers aim for triple crown
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/brog/Sports/60266/
BENTON COUNTY — The Rogers Mounties have been focused on the big goal all year.
And that’s put the focus of opponents on them.
The Mounties hope the rest of the field is chasing them at today’s Class 7 A State Track Meet at John McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
With state championships in cross country and indoor track behind them, Rogers can finish the high school triple crown today. The first half of the field events begin at 11 a. m. and running prelims start at 1 p. m. The second half of the field events start at 3: 30 and the running finals are set for 6: 30 p. m.
“ We’ve tried not to look backwards and we’ve tried not to look too far ahead, ” Mounties coach Jay Miles said. “ We kind of take it one meet at a time. (Today ) has been the moment we’ve been striving towards all year. “ Hopefully we go out there and keep our blinders on and keep working for it. Because that’s obviously been the goal. And obviously that’s put a big target on our back. ”
Both the Rogers boys and girls teams won state cross country titles in November and Class 5 A / 6 A / 7 A indoor track titles in February.
But a large and well-rounded team puts the defending state champion Mounties in a better position to finish the triple crown.
“ It gives us opportunities to score more than some of the other teams, ” Miles said.
“ We’re counting on every one of them to do something for the team (and ) to do a little bit better than they’ve been doing. ”
Rogers won the 7 A-West Conference meet last week by scoring in every event. The Mounties will be represented in all but two events and have lots of depth in several individual events.
The Mounties have four athletes in the 800-meter, four in the 1, 600-meter and six in the 3, 200-meter races.
Junior Cameron Efurd and senior Taylor Surly are qualified in all three of those, leading a strong distance crew.
Efurd has the second-best times in the state in the 800 and 1, 600 and Surly has the second-best time in the 3, 200, followed by senior teammate Aaron Hamilton. But they’ll get tested by distance runners from Fort Smith Southside, Russellville, Conway and Little Rock Catholic.
Austin Young, who has the state’s best time in the 300-meter hurdles, will run in both hurdle races while teammates Michael Tibbs and Dexter Kemmet will join him in the 110-meter hurdles.
The Mounties also have the state’s best time in the 3, 200-meter relay, running a time of 7 minutes, 58. 09 seconds at the McDonnell Invitational four weeks ago. They set a league record at the 7 A-West Conference meet by winning it in 8: 00. 07.
The Lady Tigers will also be well-balanced as they seek a repeat.
“ We have a little bit of variety which is always good, ” coach Randy Ramaker said. “ We have a lot of chances to score and that makes for a better chance this year. ”
Katie Dalton won both the 1, 600 and 3, 200 at the conference meet and leads a strong distance crew. Bentonville will be well represented in the 800, 1, 600 and 3, 200.
Senior sprinters Kayla Middlebrook and Jeanna Sheppard will have busy days. Middlebrook will run the 100, 200 and 400 while Sheppard will compete in the 100, 200 and both hurdles.
Middlebrook won the 400 last week and Sheppard won the 100-meter hurdles.
The Lady Tigers can also score a lot of points in the field events. Two-time conference champion Kasey O’Connor is in the pole vault and the Lady Tigers have four girls in the two throws.
The Lady Tigers also have all three relays entered, including the 3, 200-meter relay in which they have the state’s best time of 9: 40. 21.
The Bentonville boys have all three relays qualified for the state meet and senior Stephon Ferriel will try to defend his title in the 800.
Ferriel has the state’s best time of 1: 57. 40 — which he ran to defend his conference title last week. He also won the event at McDonnell Field during the Invitational four weeks ago.
Efurd is right behind Ferriel in the state-wide rankings, running a 1: 57. 63 to finish second at the conference meet.
The Tigers also have athletes qualified in two sprints, one hurdle race and two field events.
Sophomore Brittany Mc-Clain and distance runners Courtney Efurd and Natalia Guerrero will have busy days for the Lady Mounties.
McClain is qualified in the high jump and both hurdle races while Efurd and Guerrero will run the 1, 600 and 3, 200 today.
Efurd won both of those races at last year’s state meet.
Kiley Young is also in the high jump and teammates Victoria Crawford and Jenni Goodwin are entered in the pole vault.
Rogers also has two relays qualified.