Following spring break, the Greenwood High School senior girls and boys track teams, under the direction of coach Lynn McElroy, hosted the annual Bulldog Relays last Monday, March 26th, at Smith-Robinson Stadium. Track and field teams from around the area participated in the event, held under near perfect weather conditions. Combining scores from both girls and boys events, Alma won the meet with a total score of 208.5 points, 142 of which came from its boys’ squad. Greenwood finished fifth with 102 points, 68 from the Bulldogs and 34 from the Lady Bulldogs.
Greenwood Boys
In the boys 100-meter dash the Bulldogs had two athletes finish in the points. Senior Austin Nelson placed second in the event with a time of 11.50 seconds, while sophomore Kurt Sikes finished sixth at 12.12 seconds. However, Sikes scored third place points in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.39 seconds. Nelson came back and won the 400-meter event with a lead time of 50.95 seconds. Fellow senior Garrett Moore finished sixth with a time of 56.12 seconds.
In the individual distance events, the Bulldogs fielded two athletes who scored points in two of the three events. Junior Ian Carter ran third in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:02.89, a little more than 10 seconds behind the winning time. In the 3200-meter run Carter placed fourth with a time of 11:22.07. He was joined in the point column by GHS sophomore Austin Gosch, who came in fifth with a time of 11:36.15.
In the 110-meter high hurdles, Greenwood junior Charles Fortson placed fourth with a time of 17.28 seconds. In the 300-meter high hurdles, the Bulldogs garnered points from a fifth place finish by senior Chase Escalante with a time of 43.94 seconds. Greenwood also scored a pair of second place finishes in two of the three team relay events. The 4x100 meter team placed second with a time of 45.99 seconds, just twelve-tenths of a second behind first place Booneville. The GHS 4x400 meter squad ran second behind Alma with a time of 3:43.76.
In the boys’ high jump, Charles Fortson cleared the bar at six feet even to earn second place points. Greenwood did not score in either the long jump or the triple jump. The other field events weren’t very kind to the ‘Dogs either, as Greenwood either failed to score or participate in the shot put, pole vault, or discus throw.
Greenwood Girls
The Lady Bulldogs did not place or participate in any of the individual speed events, the 100, 200, or 400 meter dashes. Nor did they place or take part in the 800-meter run or the 3200-meter event. But sophomore Elka Platt did place fifth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:54.19. Junior Bethany Skaggs scored fifth placed points in the 300-meter high hurdles with a time of 59.29 seconds. Skaggs also ran in the 100-meter high hurdles, but finished eighth and out of the points. Neither did the GHS girls score or participate in the team relay races or any of the jumping events.
The two best finishes of the meet for the Lady Bulldogs were in the shot put and pole vault, both earning first place points. Senior Saige Risley won the shot put with a heave of 32’8” and junior Krista Balm easily won the pole vault with a height of 9’2”, the only competitor to clear nine feet. Risley also placed third in the discus throw with a distance of 76’6”.
GHS Schedule
The Greenwood track and field teams will spend most of their spring season on the road. Greenwood will travel to Alma next Tuesday for the Airedale Relays, then at Mansfield on March 19th. Meets at Van Buren and Fort Smith Southside will round out the schedule before Greenwood hosts the 5A West Conference meet on Thursday, April 26th. For those athletes who qualify, the state meet will be held in Hot Springs, May 3-5, and the Meet of Champs will be held at Lake Hamilton on May 12th.