The Greenwood Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs track and field teams have completed their competition for the spring of 2023 with their participation in the 5A West conference meet at Van Buren and the 5A state meet at Lake Hamilton High School. A handful of GHS athletes also qualified for the prestigious Meet of Champs at Russellville.
The teams are managed by Head Coach Jason Gill and assistant coach Jim Andrews, and the GHS boys and girls have performed well this season. They hosted and won (boys) the annual Quad Cities Invitational in early March, with the Lady Bulldogs finishing fourth. More recently they turned in some solid individual performances against fellow 5A West conference members and a few GHS thinclads qualified for the state meet last week.
Conference Meet
The Greenwood boys scored 38 points at Van Buren on April 27th in the league meet, finishing last among the eight teams, while the GHS girls placed sixth with 64 points. Russellville dominated the scoring among both the boys and girls with Mountain Home coming in second.
As usual, the Lady Bulldogs scored most of their points in the long-distance running events, including three second place finishes. But Pate Jones picked up sixth place points in the 200-mater dash with a time of 28.85 seconds. In the 800-meter run, Kaitlynne Elmore finished second (2:30.66) and Piper Ames placed fourth (2:32.01).
The GHS girls finished 4-5-6 in the 1600-meter run. Julia Witherington was fourth (5:32.81), Paige Andrews was fifth (5:47.88), and Camryn Coston was sixth with a time of 5:48.28. Carol Werner came in second in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:05.01. Two relay teams also performed well for the Lady Bulldogs. The 4x400 meter relay team placed third with a time of 4:34.53 while the 4x800 meter team finished second (10:15.81).
In the field events, senior Taylor Hankins earned Greenwood’s only first place points in the pole vault, clearing the bar at a height of 11 feet seven inches. In the 300-meter hurdles, Baylee Parnell placed fifth for the Lady Bulldogs with a time of 53.47 seconds.
For the GHS boys, senior Noah Embrey had the only first place finish in the 3200-meter run with a winning time of 9:46.06. Embrey also placed second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:31.02. Joshua Johnson scored a single point with an eighth-place performance in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.48.
All four relay teams scored points for the Bulldogs. The 4x100 meter team finished second (45.01), the 4x200 meter squad placed seventh (1:36.91), the 4x400 meter squad placed sixth (3:48.79), and the 4x800 meter team ran seventh with a time of 10:40.64. The Bulldogs’ only other points came from Silas Spicer, who placed seventh in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 18.30 seconds.
State Meet
The Class 5A state track and field meet was held at Lake Hamilton High School on Thursday, May 4th, and several Greenwood thinclads were there to participate, with Noah Embrey earning first place honors in the 3200-meter run with a time of 9:22.46. The GHS 4x100 meter relay also competed, finishing 15th overall for the Bulldogs.
For the Lady Bulldogs, Taylor Hankins had the best performance at Lake Hamilton with a third-place finish in the pole vault at 11 feet, eight inches. Kaitlynne Elmore ran fifth (2:29.17) in the 800-meter run and Piper Ames finished eighth (2:33.43) in the same event. Carole Werner also placed fifth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:35.26.
Paige Andrews, the daughter of assistant coach Jim Andrews, also finished fifth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:17.07. The 4x800 meter relay team placed fourth with a time of 10:23.18 for the Lady Bulldogs, good enough to qualify for the Arkansas Meet of Champs at Russellville on May 10th. Taylor Hankins and Noah Embrey also qualified.
Meet of Champs
At Russellville High School last Wednesday, Noah Embrey had Greenwood’s best performance with a third-place finish in the 3200-meter run with a time of 9:26.64. Taylor Hankins earned fifth place honors in the pole vault, soaring over the bar at 11 feet four inches. The girls 4x800 meter relay team placed seventh with a time of 10:21.93.