Greenwood High School juniors Taylor Hankins and Noah Embrey were among the top performers this past Tuesday at the 5A West conference track and field meet held at Siloam Springs. Hankins won the girls pole vault competition while Embrey ran first in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs. Both earned medals and All-Conference honors and qualified to compete in the 5A state meet in Van Buren on May 5th. In 2021 Hankins not only competed in the state meet, but also won her event in the prestigious Meet of Champs.
In addition to the conference meet, both the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs competed in the annual McDonald Relays last week at Jim Rowland Stadium on the campus of Fort Smith Southside High School. Fortunately, the weather cooperated for both events with warm and partly cloudy conditions. Both GHS teams are led by Head Coach Brian Sims.
McDonald Relays, Fort Smith
Last Thursday at Southside High School 20 boys teams and 17 girls teams participated in the McDonald Relays, one of the top track and field meets held annually in the state of Arkansas. Predictably, the final results were dominated by the larger schools, with Bentonville High School running away with both the boys and girls divisions.
The Tigers scored 203½ points to nearly double second place Rogers-Heritage (107) in the boys competition, and the Lady Tigers did even better, scoring 225½ points, followed by Rogers High School (98) and Fayetteville High (82). The GHS boys placed 13th with 12 points and the Lady Bulldogs finished 16th with 10 points.
The GHS girls competed in half-a-dozen running events, finishing no higher than the sixth-place finish turned in by sophomore Paige Andrews in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:28.00. Paige is the daughter of GHS cross country coach Jim Andrews. In the same event, junior Ashley Koeth ran 15th with a time of 13:35.00.
In the 1600-meter run, promising GHS freshman Carole Werner placed seventh, while the 4x400 meter relay team also placed seventh with a time of 4:41.86. The 4x800 meter relay team also ran seventh with a time of 12:20.64. Junior Kaitlynne Elmore ran eighth (2:35.39) in the 800-meter run for the Lady Bulldogs. Another freshman, Elizabeth Moy, finished 16th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:11.16.
Among the GHS boys, Noah Embrey finished third in the 1600-meter run, turning in an elite performance with a time of 4:22.78. Fayetteville’s Hudson Betts won the event with a time of 4:19.47, breaking a 50-year-old meet record. Embrey earned six points for the Bulldogs, half of the team’s total.
The other six GHS points were earned by sophomores L.J. Robins and Kent Decoster, and members of the 4x800 relay team. Robins placed sixth (53.92) in the 400-meter dash, Decoster finished eighth (5’8”) in the high jump, and the relay squad ran seventh (9:14.86). Sophomore Noah Chaser earned no points but placed tenth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.62 seconds and 23rd (11.84) in the 100-meter dash.
Other Greenwood athletes who competed included freshman Rhett Williams, who placed 14th (55.82) in the 400-meter dash; freshman Westin Rushing who ran 30th in the 1600-meter run (5:40.14); and junior David Ambriz who finished 32nd in the same event (5:53.09).
5A West meet, Siloam Springs
Vilonia, Mountain Home, and Russellville dominated the scoring at the conference meet this past Tuesday. Vilonia won both the girls and boys divisions with 194 and 162.33 points, respectively. The Russellville girls placed second with Mountain Home third. The Mountain Home boys finished second overall with Russellville coming in third. Both GHS teams placed seventh. The Lady Bulldogs scored 34 points to 40 for the GHS boys.
The Lady Bulldogs had half-a-dozen top-six finishers, led by Taylor Hankins’ elite performance in the pole vault. She cleared the bar at a height of 11 feet even to earn first place points. Kaitlynne Elmore placed third (2:29.31) in the 800-meter run and Paige Andrews ran fourth (12:17.19) in the 3200-meter run. Carole Werner earned fifth place points in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:31.19. Elmore and Andrews were named as All-Conference performers.
The Lady Bulldogs also scored sixth place points in both the 4x400 and 4x800 meter relay events with times of 4:47.96 and 11:33.89, respectively. Freshman Pate Jones also placed seventh (28.78) in the 200-meter dash. Paige Andrews also ran the 1600-meter race, finishing eighth with a time of 5:35.62. Ashley Koeth was ninth (13:43.99) in the 3200-meter run and Maddie Cash was 17th in the 800-meter run (2:58.79).
In the 400-meter dash Greenwood’s Elizabeth Moy ran 10th (1:08.78) and freshman Haylee Young finished 14th (1:15.16). In the 100-meter hurdles, another freshman, Baylee Parnell, ran 10th with a time of 23.40 seconds. She also competed in the 300-meter hurdles and placed ninth, completing the course in 56.07 seconds.
The Bulldogs also had six top-six performances, led by Embrey’s two first-place finishes. He led the pack in the 1600-meter run with a winning time of 4.22.48. He also outpaced the competition in the 3200-meter run with a time of 9:49.56. The next best individual performers among the GHS boys were Noah Chaser and sophomore Josh Allen.
Chaser finished fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.59 seconds. He also placed seventh (24.16) in the 200-meter event. Allen was fifth in the pole vault, clearing a height of 12 feet even. Sophomore Landon Nelms was sixth in the high jump (5’8”) while teammate Kent Decoster was ninth (5’6”).
The other top six performer for the Bulldogs was junior Joshua Johnson in the 800-meter run with a sixth-place time of 2:06.13. In the same event, Greenwood freshman Raden Rosa finished 16th (2:17.75) and junior Hudson Trice was 20th (2:26.01). GHS senior Hunter Kinser ran 26th (13.28) in the 100-meter dash.
In the 200-meter dash, senior Michael Hurt ran 29th (27.03) with Kinser right behind in 30th place (27.39). Hurt also placed 19th (1:01.78) in the 400-meter dash with Rhett Clements close on his heels in 20th place (1:09.78). David Ambriz was 22nd (5:42.21) in the 1600-meter run with junior Lucas Wittig finishing 24th with a time of 6:16.64.
Both Greenwood relay teams finished seventh. The 4x400 meter team turned in a time of 3:46.18 and the 4x800 squad had a time of 9:10.43. Sophomore Braxton Patterson finished 11th in the 110-meter hurdles. Junior Hayden Webb and sophomore Ryan Franks competed in both the shot put and discus throw. Webb was 17th (80’2”) in the discus and 14th (36’7¾”) in the shot. Franks was 18th (79”9”) in the discus throw and 20th (30’6½”) in the shot put.