Both Greenwood High School track and field teams are preparing for their final meets of the outdoor season with this coming Thursday’s McDonald Relays at Fort Smith Southside followed by the 5A West conference meet at Alma a week later on the last Thursday of the month. Should any GHS athletes qualify, the 5A state meet will be held at Russellville on May 2nd.
The Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs recently competed in meets at Mansfield, Alma, and Van Buren, scoring well in the first two meets while struggling at Van Buren against more teams, bigger schools, and tougher competition. The GHS teams are led by Head Coach Jason Gill and assistants Jim Andrews, Amy Hardy, Eric Daniel, and Luke Hales.
Tiger Relays
Nine Lady Bulldogs competed in the senior high Tiger Relays at Mansfield High School on Thursday, March 28th. The event was delayed two days due to poor weather conditions, forcing Greenwood to cancel a scheduled trip to Rogers for the Whitey Smith Relays, also slated for that same day. Of the nine GHS ladies who performed that day, seven of them earned top six finishes in their respective events to score team points.
The best performance was turned in by Piper Ames who ran first in the 800-meter run with a winning time of 2:40.37. Piper is the daughter of cross country assistant coach Becky Ames. Fellow cross country teammate Julia Witherington also ran second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:42.09. Witherington also competed in the high jump, finishing eighth. Another GHS cross country runner, Camryn Coston, also placed fourth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:04.97. The Lady Bulldogs’ cross country team won their second state championship last fall for Head Coach Jim Andrews.
Another top performer on that team is Carole Werner, who placed second at Mansfield in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:28.18, two seconds ahead of fellow teammate Paige Andrews at 12:30.15. Andrews is the daughter of Coach Jim Andrews. Another member of the cross country team that placed at Mansfield was Elizabeth Moy, who ran fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:14.79. She also competed in the 200-meter event, placing 15th. Greenwood’s Kristina Andrews was 19th in the 100-meter dash.
Two Lady Bulldogs competed in the field events at Mansfield, seniors Norah Sights and Taryn Presson. Sights finished sixth in the discus throw with a distance of 71’1” to earn team points. She placed 14th in the shot put event. Presson placed 10th in the discus and 16th in the shot put.
For the GHS boys, more than a dozen athletes competed with several top six finishes, with three first-place performances including two relay teams while the other relay squad finished second. Including that team, Greenwood had a total of four second place finishes, two third place finishes, a fourth-place finish, two fifth place finishes, and a sixth-place performance, all contributing points to Greenwood’s team total.
The top individual performance for the Bulldogs at Mansfield was turned in by junior Silas Spicer in a the 300-meter hurdles, with a first-place time of 44.71 seconds. Easton Carter ran second in the same event with a time of 46.02 seconds. Spicer also ran third in the 110-meter event with a time of 18.35 seconds while Carter placed second in the high jump at six feet even and fifth in the triple jump at 35’8½”.
In the relay events the Bulldogs dominated with two first place and a second-place finish. The 4x100 meter relay squad of Kyston Quick, Tremon Hunt, Blaze McDaniel, and Isiah Arrington placed first with a time of 44.80 seconds. The 4x200 meter relay team of Cooper Goodwin, Wesley Raggio, Eli Siddons, and Easton Thornsberry earned first place points with a winning time of 1:39.02. The 4x400 meter relay of Cooper Goodwin, Micheal Shaw, Reis Denson, and Rhett Williams finished second, making four laps around the track with a time of 3:52.50, less than a second behind first place Waldron.
Besides his participation in the 4x100 meter relay, Greenwood sophomore Tremon Hunt also placed second in the long jump with a leap of 19’1”. Hunt also ran fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.76 seconds. Isiah Arrington was fifth in the same event at 11.85 seconds. Cooper Bland was sixth in the 200-meter dash at 25.45 seconds. Benton Hossley was right behind Bland in seventh place at 25.46 seconds. Rhett Williams was third in the 400-meter dash at 55.08 seconds.
In the shot put and discus throw, the Bulldogs were represented by Ryan Frank, Landon Billy, and Justin Permenter, though none of the three were able to crack the top six finishers in their respective events. Frank was 16th in the discus while Billy and Permenter placed 10th and 19th respectively in the shot.
Airedale Relays
On Thursday, April 4th, both GHS squads crossed the Arkansas River to Crawford County to participate in the annual Airedale Relays at Alma. The Lady Bulldogs had 15 top six finishes in the 11 events in which they competed. The Bulldogs were nearly as good with 14 top six placers in 14 total events. However, the GHS boys had all three of Greenwood’s first place finishes.
For the Greenwood ladies, Pate Jones scored in two events, second place (1:06.48) in the 400-meter dash and fourth (29.44 seconds) in the 200-meter event. Piper Ames also scored fifth place points in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:13.59 and Elizabeth Moy placed 10th. She also finished eighth in the 200-meter race. Kristina Andrews was 12th in the 100-meter dash.
In the 800-meter run, Greenwood’s Camryn Coston placed fourth (2:40.32), Julia Witherington was fifth (2:41.11), and Piper Ames finished ninth. Paige Andrews ran second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:43.53. Witherington was third in the same event with a time of 5:45.76 and Carole Werner ran fourth (5:58.59). Paige Andrews also placed second in the grueling 3200-meter run with a time of 12:07.38.
Sophomore Trinity Spicer also had a pair of top finishes, placing second (58.17) in the 300-meter hurdles and third (20.53) in the 100-meter hurdles. Carole Werner was third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 1:07.38. The Lady Bulldogs also scored third place points in the 4x400 meter relay event with a time of 4:48.64. Norah Sights placed fourth in the discus with a throw of 77’1”. She also placed fifth in the shot put with a heave of 25’2”. Taryn Presson finished eighth in the same event.
As for the GHS boys, Isiah Arrington, Easton Carter, and Tremon Hunt all had first place finishes for the Bulldogs. Arrington, a starting receiver on the state champion Bulldogs’ football team, ran first in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.37 seconds. Easton Carter cleared the bar at 5’10” in the high jump for first place, and Tremon Hunt soared 19’3” in the long jump, also earning first place points. Hunt ran sixth (11.80) in the 100-meter dash and Carter was sixth (45.57) in the 300-meter hurdles.
In the 200-meter dash Greenwood’s Cooper Goodwin and Cooper Bland ran 10th and 11th, respectively. Rhett Williams placed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.26 seconds. Caleb Cox ran 12th in the same event. Carson Thornsberry was seventh (2:30.88) in the 800-meter run and Andrew Rye was eighth in the 1600-meter race. However, Rye finished second in the even more challenging 3200-meter event with a time of 11.26.94.
Silas Spicer was fifth (19.28) in the 110-meter hurdles and fourth (44.32) in the 300-meter hurdles. The 4x200 meter relay team finished fourth with a time of 1:38.20 while the 4x400 meter relay squad placed fifth with a time of 3:53.62. Greenwood’s D.J. Dobbins was fifth in the long jump with a leap of 18’4”. He also placed fourth in the triple jump (35’5”). Easton Carter was also fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 34’3½”. Landon Billy placed seventh in the shot put at 33’5”.
Pointer Relays
Nearly two dozen area schools converged on Blakemore Field at Van Buren High School last Thursday for the annual Pointer Relays. The greater participation and inclusion of schools like Russellville, known for its track prowess, and several Class 6A schools like Bentonville, both Fort Smith high schools, along with Rogers and Springdale, greatly improved the level of competition, making it harder for the two Greenwood teams to score points. The Lady Bulldogs took about a dozen girls to the meet and scored two top six finishes. The GHS boys had only six athletes to compete with a single top six finish.
For the GHS ladies, the 4x800 meter team placed third with a time of 10:32.28. The other top finisher for the Lady Bulldogs was Paige Andrews, who placed sixth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:42.57. The team’s next best performances were turned in by Pate Jones, eighth in the 400-meter run, and Julia Witherington, also eighth in the 1600-meter run. Carole Werner was ninth in the 3200-meter run and Piper Ames was 13th in the 800-meter run. Camryn Coston ran 16th in the same event. Kristina Andrews, Elizabeth Moy, Taryn Presson, and Norah Sights also competed, but none finished among the top 20 competitors in their events.
As for the Bulldogs, Easton Carter was the lone performer to score points for Greenwood. He finished second in the high jump at six feet even. D.J. Dobbins also had a top ten finish in the triple jump, clearing a distance of 37’10”. Andrew Rye was 12th in the 3200-meter run while Rhett Williams placed 17th. Williams also ran 18th in the 400-meter dash and Rye ran 22nd in the 1600-meter run. Silas Spicer finished 12th in the 110-meter hurdles. Landon Billy was 29th in the shot put.