WESTSIDE - Two Gentry High School students won state championships at the 4A State Championship track meet held in Heber Springs on Thursday. Other area students placed in the top 10 in the competition.
Gentry junior Jerod Cousins hurled the discus 137 feet, six inches, to take the number-one spot. He also tied for third place in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet, eight inches.
The second state champion was Gentry freshman Mallory Morris, who finished the 800-meter run in 2 minutes, 29.42 seconds.
Gravette High School came home with two second- and one third place medals in the state competition.
Gravette junior Terence Pierce took second in the high jump, clearing six feet, two inches. He was tied with Dollarway’s Kabion Ento and only an inch short of Highland’s champion, Avery Johnson. Gravette’s Alex Lovell tied for fourth with a jump of six feet.
Gravette sophomore Roberto Garcia pickedup two medals, finishing third in the 1600-meter run and second in the 3200-meter run.
In other events, Gentry senior Kevin Parish finished sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.31. Jake Falkenberry of Gentry finished ninth in the 400-meter at 55.76. Colby Bryant finished 10th in the 800 meter run at 2:11.56. Bryar Preuss finished seventh in the shot put with a throw of 43 feet, 10 inches. He also finished eighth in the discus, throwing 116 feet, five inches.
On the girls’ side, Gentry sophomore Bailey Bills finished ninth in the 200-meter run, at 27.74. She finished 10th in the 100 and 400 hundred with times of 13.69 and 1:07.05.
Gravette senior Jordan White took third in the 300-meter hurdles and 10th in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing with times of 51.90 and 18.34.
Gravette sophomore Kylee Davis finished seventh in the triple jump, clearing a distance of 32 feet, five inches.
Gravette girls’ relay teams also finished in seventh in the 4x100 and 10th in the 4x800 with times of 53.66 and 11:39.93.
Sports, Pages 9 on 05/08/2013