GRAVETTE — Kevin Parish took highpoint honors and Gentry’s boys converted their field events success into a 4A-1 Conference track championship during Thursday’s meet in Gravette.

The Pioneers finished the meet with 187 points and ended the three-year reign of Shiloh Christian, which finished second with 129 points. Gravette was third with 103, while Prairie Grove and Farmington rounded out the top five with 82 and 57 points, respectively.

“Our goal was to score somewhere between 90 and 100 points in the field events, so we concentrated on it a lot,” Gentry coach Daniel Ramsey said. “We knew if we did that, we were in pretty good shape, and we weregreat with that.

“We knew Shiloh has some good sprinters and was strong in some of the distance races, but we performed well. We didn’t win as many events as we could, but the boys understood what we were trying to do, which was outscore Shiloh in different ways.”

Parish, a junior, scored 41 points and qualified for the Class 4A State Meet in four events, including a victory in the high jump when he cleared 5 feet, 7 inches. He finished second in the 100-meter dash (11.39 seconds), the long jump (20-0) and the triple jump (39-7.75) and took third in the 200 (23.16).

The Pioneers also picked up victories in the pole vault, where sophomore Jerod Cousins took first when he cleared 10-6 (he missed a 13-4 attempt but has cleared 13-0 before), and in the discus, where senior Ricky Hernandez had a toss of 123-4.5. Gentry’s lone first place inthe running events came in the 800, where Colby Bryant finished in 2 minutes, 10.55 seconds.

Shiloh Christian won a majority of the running events, as Daniel Shimer took the 100; then he finished second behind teammate Gabriel Munson in both the 200 and 400. Kyle Plunkett was a double winner in the hurdles, as was Daniel Evans in the 1,600 and 3,200.

In the girls' division, Berryville won the team title with 180 points, while Pea Ridge edged Gravette by a 112-111 margin. The difference came in the 4x400 relay as Pea Ridge took fifth place and scored four points, while Gravette finished sixth to earn three points.

Distance runners carried the Lady Blackhawks, as Anna Morgan won the 1,600 and led a 1-4-6 finish in that race. Natalie Flippo then won the 3,200 as Pea Ridge took first, third and sixth in the event.

Jordan White led Gravette with victories in the hurdles, and the Lady Lions also won the 4x100 relay. Kyndra Meeker, who is normally with the softball team, qualified for the state meet with second-place finishes in the 1,600, 3,200 and long jump, as did Haley House in the 100 and Kylie Davis in the triple jump.

“Kyndra had a great meet and really helped us a bunch,” Gravette coach Kevin Cole said. “Haley House and Kylie Davis also showed up. We were sitting in second place and were just overtaken at the end.”

Sports, Pages 9 on 05/02/2012