GRAVETTE — The smaller field participating in the Lion Relays gave Gentry’s boys a better advantage than they needed Friday.

The Pioneers, who have only 10 members on their roster, dominated the field and rolled away with the team title at Lion Stadium. Gentry, which has won every meet when it’s not competing against bigger schools, finished with 176.5 points, compared to 106 for second-place Elkins.

“We’ve got a couple of kids that can score a lot of points individually,” Gentry coach Daniel Ramsey said. “Really, we’ve got kids that can do different events. We have a thrower and we have distance guys, then we have sprinters and field eventsguys.

“We have a good mix. We don’t have very many kids, but that good mix makes us strong.”

The duo of Jerod Cousins and Kevin Parish left their mark on the meet, combining for 80.5 points and finishing one-two in the highpoint honors. Cousins, a sophomore field event specialist, won the pole vault by clearing 12 feet and tied for first place with Prairie Grove’s Kristian Denton in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.08 seconds.

Parish, a junior sprinter/ jumper, competed in one less event and still finished with 37.5 points. He won three events - the 100 (11.27 seconds), the high jump (5-5) and the triple jump (41-7).

“Those are two decathletes,” Ramsey said of his duo. “We’re hoping they will do real well this year in thedecathlon. I think both of them can fall in the top 10 or 15 down there, and when you have two decathletes, they’re capable of scoringpoints, especially in Class 4A.”

The race for the girls title was a much closer one, with Gentry pulling away at the end. The Lady Pioneers finished with 104 points, followed by Farmington with 92.5 and Gravette with 92.

Gravette was in the lead after the 200, but the Lady Lions didn’t have anybody run in the final two events - the 3,200 and the 4x400relay. That allowed Gentry to take the lead with Karoline Page’s second-place finish in the 3,200 and the Lady Pioneers’ victory in the 4x400 relay.

“We had a couple of girls that were ‘would have, could have, should have’ there at the end,” Gravette coach Kevin Cole said. “But at this time of the year, you’re fighting injuries. The most important meet is comingup in district, so I don’t want to press the injuries.

“We had a really good meet. Some of our girls came out and competed.”

Prairie Grove’s Brooke Barnett took the girls’ high-point award, edging Farmington’s Casey Harp by a 30.5-28 margin. Barnett won the long jump (15-4) and the 100 (13.60) and finished second in the 400 (1:09.63).

Sports, Pages 9 on 04/18/2012